Ghazal
The ghazal[a] is a form of amatory poem or ode,[1] originating in Arabic poetry.[2] Ghazals often deal with topics of spiritual and romantic love and may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation from the beloved and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.[2][3]
This article is about the poetic form. For other uses, see Ghazal (disambiguation).
The ghazal form is ancient, tracing its origins to 7th-century Arabic poetry. The ghazal spread into the Indian subcontinent in the 12th century due to the influence of Sufi mystics and the courts of the new Islamic Sultanate, and is now most prominently a form of poetry of many languages of South Asia and Turkey.[4]
A ghazal commonly consists of five to fifteen couplets, which are independent, but are linked – abstractly, in their theme; and more strictly in their poetic form. The structural requirements of the ghazal are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet.[5] In style and content, due to its highly allusive nature, the ghazal has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation.
Etymology and pronunciation[edit]
The word ghazal originates from the Arabic word غزل (ġazal). This genre of Arabic poetry is derived from غَزَل (ḡazal) or غَزِلَ (ḡazila) - To sweet-talk, to flirt, to display amorous gestures.[6]
The Arabic word غزل ġazal is pronounced [ˈɣazal]. In English, the word is pronounced /ˈɡʌzəl/[7] or /ˈɡæzæl/.[8]
History[edit]
Origins in Arabia[edit]
The ghazal originated in Arabia in the 7th century,[14] evolving from the qasida, a much older pre-Islamic Arabic poetic form.[9] Qaṣīdas were typically much longer poems, with up to 100 couplets. Thematically, qaṣīdas did not include love, and were usually panegyrics for a tribe or ruler, lampoons, or moral maxims. However, the qaṣīda's opening prelude, called the nasīb, was typically nostalgic and/or romantic in theme, and highly ornamented and stylized in form. In time, the nasīb began to be written as standalone, shorter poems, which became the ghazal.[4]
The ghazal came into its own as a poetic genre during the Umayyad era (661–750) and continued to flower and develop in the early Abbasid era. The Arabic ghazal inherited the formal verse structure of the qaṣīda, specifically, a strict adherence to meter and the use of the Qaafiyaa, a common end rhyme on each couplet (called a bayt in Arabic and a sher in Persian).[4]
The nature of the ghazals also changed to meet the demands of musical presentation, becoming briefer in length. Lighter poetic meters, such as khafîf, ramal, and muqtarab were preferred, instead of longer, more ponderous meters favored for qaṣīdas (such as kâmil, basît, and rajaz). Topically, the ghazal focus also changed from nostalgic reminiscences of the homeland and loved ones, towards romantic or erotic themes. These included sub-genres with themes of courtly love (udharî), eroticism (hissî), homoeroticism (mudhakkar), and as a highly stylized introduction to a larger poem (tamhîdî).[4][15]
Important ghazal poets[edit]
Ghazals were written by Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi Shirazi of Persia; the Turkic poets Yunus Emre, Fuzûlî and Nesimi of the Ottoman Empire; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India; and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal. Through the influence of Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany during the 19th century; the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835). The Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real Ghazals in English". Ghazals were also written by Moti Ram Bhatta (1866–1896), the pioneer of Nepali ghazal writing in Nepali.[28] Ghazals were also written by Hamza Shinwari, He is known as the father of Pashto Ghazals.
Translations and performance of classical ghazal[edit]
Enormous collections of ghazal have been created by hundreds of well-known poets over the past thousand years in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu as well as in the Central Asian Turkic languages. Ghazal poems are performed in Uzbek-Tajik Shashmakom, Turkish Makam, Persian Dastgah and Uyghur Muqam. There are many published translations from Persian and Turkish by Annemarie Schimmel, Arthur John Arberry and many others.
Ghazal "Gayaki", the art of singing or performing the ghazal in the Indian classical tradition, is very old. Singers like Ustad Barkat Ali and many other singers in the past used to practice it, but the lack of historical records make many names anonymous. It was with Begum Akhtar and later on Ustad Mehdi Hassan that classical rendering of ghazals became popular in the masses. The categorization of ghazal singing as a form of "light classical" music is a misconception.
Classical ghazals are difficult to render because of the varying moods of the "shers" or couplets in the ghazal. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Amanat Ali Khan, Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood, Mehdi Hassan, Abida Parveen, Jagjit Singh, Farida Khanum and Ustad Ghulam Ali, Moinuddin Ahamed, are popular classical ghazal singers.
Ghazals has been used in music throughout South Asia and has become a genre of its own, simply called "Ghazal" which refers to the music genre. The Ghazal music genre is most popular in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.[39]
Some notable Afghan ghazal singers are (Persian/Pashtu):
Some notable Pakistani and Indian ghazal singers are (Urdu/Hindi):
Many Indian and Pakistani film singers are famous for singing ghazals, such as these:
Some Malay singers are famous for singing Ghazal, such as these: