Adeel Zaidi

Persian poetry was for many centuries one of the major arts to be cultivated across the eastern Islamic world. The patronage of the great Mughal emperors encouraged further development of Persian poetry in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century India by both immigrant and native-born poets. While their works were formally cast in the long-established traditional poetic genres, some novelty of expression came from their development of the new baroque manner called the “Indian style” (sabk-e Hindi).urdu poetry classical

The eighteenth-century switch from Persian to Urdu as the preferred language of courtly poetry in northern India had been linguistically foreshadowed by the preclassical Urdu poetry produced in the southern Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan. But the living tradition of classical Urdu poetry is identified with the period when the empire had collapsed under the twin pressures of external invasions and internal struggles into several successor states, notably the court of the Navvab-Vazirs of Avadh in Lucknow and that of the politically shadowy later Mughals in Delhi, both of which were maintained as puppet kingdoms by the British until the mid-nineteenth century.

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URDU LITERATURE

Urdu literature (Urdu: ادبیات اردو‎, “Adbiyāt-i Urdū”) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ghazal غزل and nazm نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana افسانہ .

Urdu is a language whose exceptionally complex linguistic and cultural history reflects the special position of Islam in the Indian subcontinent of South Asia. While linguistically related to Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, and the other languages of the Indo-Aryan family (whose classical representative is Sanskrit), Urdu is distinguished by the very high proportion of Perso-Arabic elements in its vocabulary. This Islamic cultural orientation is also reflected in its written form, which uses the Perso-Arabic script with appropriate modifications to mark distinctive Indic features such as retroflex and aspirated consonants.

While its origins elude precise definition, Urdu clearly began in medieval times from a mixture of the local Indian dialects of the Delhi region with the Persian spoken by the Muslim conquerors whose armies rapidly spread the new lingua franca across the subcontinent. Since Persian continued to be the preferred administrative and cultural language of the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal empire, it was only with the collapse of unitary Muslim political authority in the eighteenth century that Urdu came to be cultivated in northern India as a literary language for a courtly poetry that constitutes the classical heritage of Urdu literature.

From the early nineteenth century, when British colonial rule was extended across northern India, Urdu came increasingly to be used also as a written prose language. British policy itself favored the development of Urdu as an official bureaucratic medium, and Muslim writers took ample advantage of the opportunities provided by the colonial state for the production of textbooks, newspapers, and very varied prose writings. It is from this early modern period, when British India was the scene of the most intense debates about the definition of Islam in the modern world, that Urdu became a language of Islamic expression second only in international importance to Arabic.

Throughout the twentieth century Urdu successfully retained this role as an Islamic language while also developing as the medium of a modern secular literature much influenced by English. As an administrative and educational language, however, Urdu has progressively lost ground to modern standard Hindi, the rival Sanskritized language promoted as a replacement for Urdu by Hindu nationalists. Since independence from British rule in 1947, Urdu has thus increasingly become marginalized in its Indian homeland and identified with Pakistan. Although spoken there as a mother tongue only by Muslim immigrants from India and their descendants, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, where languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, or Pashto have limited regional status only. As such, Urdu has been carried by the Pakistani diaspora to many other parts of the world, including the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

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AdeelZaidi.com serves all the Urdu poetry lovers as the home for Urdu literature.  This website provides a great collection of Urdu poetry links — Ghazals and Nazms.  AdeelZaidi.com is a personal website of a student of Urdu literature. Urdu poetry is a rich tradition which was initially originated from the Persian language. It has many different forms like Ghazal, Qasida, Marsiya, Masnavi, Tazkira and Nazm.

AdeelZaidi.com caters as a hub for all famous Urdu poets and their beautiful work.  It’s a treasure of Urdu literature and poetry. This Urdu website is a very good resource if you are looking for quality work. One can get complete range of Urdu poetry, Nazms and Urdu Ghazals here.

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Our passionate desire is to provide Urdu Poetry lovers a home for Urdu Literature. An Urdu Website containing Links to the famous urdu poets and Quality Urdu Poetry including:

Hamd Naat Manqabat Urdu Ghazal Nazm Urdu poetry Urdu Poets Urdu Adab Urdu Nazm Famous Urdu Poets Marsiya Urdu literary criticism

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HAMD

A Hamd is a poem or song in praise of Allah. It is usually written in Arabic, Persian or Urdu. The word Hamd comes from the Quran, the holy book of Allah. The meaning of Hamd is Allah’s word or praise to Allah. Its prose is beautiful and is sung with soft melodies.

Hamd is sung and recited all over the world by Muslims. The Purity of Hamd is best absorbed in Urdu language. The prose used in Urdu will make this poem appealing.

Hamd has a great place in Urdu poetry. One of its grand characteristics is that it sets forth its claims with respect to Allah and its excellent qualities and prose furnishes the proof of devotion to the almighty god Allah. It is usually written taking the words from the holy Quran whose grand characteristic is not possessed by any other book in the world. Out of the reasons and proofs that it has set forth in support of its Divine origin and its high-grade superiority as no human being could and can ever produce one single line that can be compare to it.urdu hamd

Hamd prose shines like the stars and slakes the thirst of those who are thirsty for comprehension, and washes out the dirt of doubt and suspicion. It uses prose that will define the greatness of almighty in creating this world and providing with so many amenities.

NAAT

A Naat is a poetry that specifically praises the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Commonly it is also called as Naat-E-Sharif. In Urdu language Naat is usually referred to as praise or poetry to the Prophet Muhammad. It is a religious poetry usually written in Urdu, Turkish, Persian, Arabic and Sindhi language.

Many of the famous scholars in the earlier days of Islam wrote Naat. People who recite Naat are known as Naat Khuaan or Sanaa Khuaan. Islamic poetry is rich in the praise of Prophet Muhammad. Rarely has there been any Muslim poet who has not written about Prophet Muhhamad in his poetry. This is mainly inspired from the Islamic Hadith that each act of veneration will result in ten blessings of God on the person who venerates in praise of Muhammad.

There are no records of when Naat was initiated in the history. On a more regularized basis, Prophet Muhammad’s companion Hasan ibne Thabit started this work by writing poems in praise of prophet. He was also known asshair e darbaar e risalat. Even before accepting Islam he was a poet, but after embracing Islam he gave a new turn to his poetry and started writing Naat’s in honor of Prophet Muhammad. Best Naat

MANQABAT

A Manqabat is a Sufi devotional poem which is written in praise of Imam Ali Ibne Abi Talib, the son in law of Prophet Muhammad or a Sufi saint. There were many poets in Islamic History who have written a lot in praise of Imam Ali in their poems.

Manqabat is also a part of poetry. The Manqabat prose is implicitly understood to be spiritual in its meaning, even though the lyrics can sometimes sound wildly secular or outright devotional. The central themes of Manqabat are love, devotion and praise of holy saint.

It is one of the forms of Qawwali. It is performed mainly at Sufi shrines or Dargahs. It was basically sung in South Asia but has gained global popularity now. Manqabat have received an international appeal from many of famous Urdu poets and singers.

In Qawwali, Manqabat is sung to music. The most well known of the Qawwalli manqabat is “man kunto maula” which is written by Amir Khusrau in praise of Imam Ali. This Manqabat has been performed by many famous singers and Qawwals including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sabri Brothers, Aziz Mian, Abida Parveen, Fareed Avaz and Qawwal Bahauddin.Best Manqabat Poetry

Manqabat poetry for characteristics is a song in praise of either Imam Ali or one of the Sufi saints. Manqabats in praise of Ali are sung in both muslim communities. It has become the part of both Shais and Sunnis religious gatherings.

GHAZAL

The ghazal (Arabic/Pashto/Persian/Urdu: غزل; Hindi: ग़ज़ल, Punjabi: ਗ਼ਜ਼ਲ, Turkish: Gazel, Bengali: গ়জ়ল, Gujarati: ગ઼ઝલ) is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century Arabic verse. It is derived from the Arabian panegyricqasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet. In its style and content it is a genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation. It is one of the principal poetic forms which the Indo-Perso-Arabic civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world.Urdu Ghazal

The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century under the influence of the new Islamic Sultanate courts and Sufi mystics. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Dari poetry and Urdu poetry, today it is found in the poetry of many languages of Indian sub-continent.

Ghazals were written by the Persian mystics and poets Rumi (13th century) and Hafiz (14th century), the Azeri poet Fuzuli (16th century), as well as Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), both of whom wrote ghazals in Persian and Urdu. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany in the 19th century, and the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835). The Kashmiri-American 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”.Best Urud Ghazal

In some ghazals the poet’s name is featured somewhere in the last verse (a convention known as takhallus).

Illicit unattainable love

The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject: love, specifically an illicit and unattainable love. The ghazals from Indian sub-continent have an influence of Islamic Mysticism and the subject of love can usually be interpreted for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. The love is always viewed as something that will complete a human being, and if attained will lift him or her into the ranks of the wise, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazal love may or may not have an explicit element of sexual desire in it, and the love may be spiritual. The love may be directed to either a man or a woman.

The ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover whose beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often either the beloved does not return the poet’s love or returns it without sincerity, or else the societal circumstances do not allow it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless; the lyrical impetus of the poem derives from this tension. Representations of the lover’s powerlessness to resist his feelings often include lyrically exaggerated violence. The beloved’s power to captivate the speaker may be represented in extended metaphors about the “arrows of his eyes”, or by referring to the beloved as an assassin or a killer. Take for example the following couplets from Amir Khusro‘s Persian ghazal Nami Danam Chi Manzil Buud Shab:

Nemidanam Che Manzel Bood Shab Jayi Ke Man Boodam; Be Har Soo Raghse Besmel Bood Shab Jayi Ke Man Boodam. Pari Peykar Negari Sarv Ghadi Laleh Rokhsari; Sarapa Afat-E Del Bood Shab Jayi Ke Man Boodam. I wonder what was the place where I was last night, All around me were half-slaughtered victims of love, tossing about in agony. There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form and tulip-like face, Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers.

In the context of Sufism

It is not possible to get a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being familiar with some concepts of Sufism. All the major historical post-Islamic ghazal poets were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz), or were sympathizers with Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God, or the poet’s spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.

Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi), others are about “earthly love” (ishq-e-majazi), but many of them can be interpreted in either context.

URDU POETRY Urdu poetry reached is peak in the 19th century. The most well-developed vessel of poetry has turned out to be the ghazal, which has by far exceeded all other forms of Urdu poetry by its quality and quantity within the cosmos of Urdu.Best Urdu Poetry Poets 13th-century:

Amir Khusro 16th century:

Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah – wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi 17th century:

Wali Mohammed Wali Deccani Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan 18th century:

Faaiz Dehlvi Khan Arzu Mubarak Abru Mir Taqi Mir Nazeer Akbarabadi Khwaja Mir Dard 19th century:

Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer Mir Babar Ali Anis Bahadur Shah II Mirza Sauda Mirza Ghalib Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq Dagh Dehlvi 20th century:

Altaf Hussain Maulana Hali Akbar Allahabadi Muhammad Iqbal Hasrat Mohani Amjad Hyderabadi Fani Badayuni Yagana Changezi Akhtar Shirani Miraji Seemab Akbarabadi Aarzoo Lakhnawi Jigar Moradabadi Firaq Gorakhpuri Hafeez Jalandhari Josh Malihabadi Ahsan Danish Saghar Nizami Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi Noon Meem Rashid Majeed Amjad Faiz Ahmad Faiz Jan Nisar Akhtar Nasir Kazmi Sahir Ludhianvi Jagan Nath Azad Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrarul Haq Majaz Syed Mahmood Khundmiri Ibn-e-Insha Munir Niyazi Ada Jaffery Zafar Iqbal 21st century:

Jaun Elia Ahmad Faraz Raees Warsi Akhlaque Bandvi Rahat Indori Waseem Barelvi Ishrat Afreen Manzar Bhopali Adeel Zaidi

NAZM

Nazm is a major part of urdu poetry, that is normally written in rhymed verse and also in modern prose style poems. Nazm is a beautiful poetry describing the simple language in terms of rhymes or poems. Many poets express their gratitude towards their life in Nazms.

There are various forms of Nazm like Naat, Qawwwali, Hamd, Qasida, Salam, Marsiya and much more. This is written in many languages but basically in Urdu, Persian and Hindi. This is usually recited on special occasions or at any holy place. Nazm’s are different from other poetry as they are written in different manner. Some Nazm’s are sad and it describes grieving or weeping phrases about some sad event or happening whereas some are of expressing happiness and joy. urdu best nazms

There were many famous poets of Nazm writing like Nazeer Akarabadi, Iqbal, Josh, Firaq, Ahtarul Iman and many who have contributed a lot to this genre. These people have gained much popularity worldwide in this Nazm poetry writing and received many accolades.

URDU LITERARY CRITICISM Abdul Qavi Desnavi Muhammad Husain Azad Altaf Hussain Maulana Hali Shibli Nomani Abdur Rahman Bijnori Allama Niyaz Fatehpuri Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqi Syed Abid Ali Abid Ehtesham Hussain Syed Waqar Azeem Majnun Gorakhpuri Mumtaz Hussain Ali Sardar Jafri Malik Ram Gopi Chand Narang Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Gyan Chand Wazir Agha Waris Alwi Gopi Chand Narang Muzaffar Hanfi Aslam Farrukhi Progressive Writers Movement/ ( ترقی پسند تحریک) According to The Dawn, “Progressive Writers Movement” in Urdu literature was the strongest movement after Sir Syed’s education movement. The progressives contributed to Urdu literature some of the finest pieces of fiction and poetry. Undoubtedly, they were the trend-setters for the coming generation of writers, and their role cannot be denigrated or denied.” [1] Aamir Sohail(Abbottabad Public School,Abbottabad,Pakistan)

Modernism The modernist movement started in Urdu literature near 1960. The two most eminent names in this movement emerged are Shamsur Rehman Farooqui and Gopichand Narang. Eminent poets like Noon Meem Rashid and Meeraji are related to it. Apart from them a number of other poets like Zafer Iqbal, Nasir Kazmi, Bashir Bader and Shahryar are related to this movement. This movement laid more stress on symbolic and other indirect expressions as opposed to direct and clear expressions.Best Urdu Literary

Post-Modernism The post modernism was introduced in a big way by Gopi Chand Narang. There are many other critics in Urdu literature who are also attached to this approach of criticism. The post modernism does not claim to be a movement and does not demand any writer to adopt a particular style of writing. It generally concentrates on a method of understanding the contemporary literature in the light of its content – mostly to the features like feminism, dalit, regional and other types of literature as opposed to a seeking uniformity in the global literature on the basis of internationally established trends.

Independent Writers By the end of the 1980s the atmosphere in Urdu literature became very depressing.The progressive movement was almost dead and the modernist movement had started showing it’s complete infertility. But this was also time for upsurge of new creative forces which was basically rooted in the new life that was metamorphosing the socio-economic and political climate in the sub-continent after the days of partition and freedom. It was under this climate that the a new era of fiction started withthe publication of Paigham Afaqui’s novel Makaan. Almost allergic and fed up with the attempts of various literary movements to influence the styles and thoughts of the writers and the literary politics emerging out of the commitments to the movements which created a vicious circle of promoting chosen writers and misuse of resources and awards for promoting their own brands by these movements,Paigham Afaqui and other writers refused to be identified by any movement and displayed complete independence in using personally developed styles and technique for writing novel and explored their own philosophy and vision of life that suited their need.It was a serious departure from the theme of partition which dominated writers like Qurtul Ain haider and Abdullah Hussain and the theme of existentialism which was the benchmark of modernism. Writers like Ghazanfer and Musharraf Alam Zauqi have further widened the horizons of new themes and concerned.Urdu Literary Criticism

Urdu Journalism The Persian newspapers of West Bengal were fore-runners of the Urdu press. Two prominent periodicals were Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, founded by Lal Sadasukh Lal in 1822 and Mirat-ul-Akhbar (Mirror of News) by Raja Rammohan Roy. After the decline of Persian as an official language, Urdu gained prominence. There was extensive growth in Urdu jurnalism from the 1850s till Independence in 1947.

On 14 January 1850, Munshi Harsukh Rai started the weekly Kohinoor, which had a remarkably high (for those times) circulation of 350 copies. In 1858, Manbir Kabiruddin started the Urdu Guide, the first Urdu daily, from Calcutta. Another important paper founded that year was Roznamha-e-Punjab from Lahore. Oudh Akhbar by Munshi Nawal Kishore was the first Urdu newspaper from Lucknow, also begun in 1858.

The first Urdu newspapers of Delhi were Fawaid-ul-Nazarin and Kiran-us-Sadai, founded by Rama Chandra in 1852. The Urdu press in Delhi became highly critical of the British government. The best example of them is the Urdu Akhbar, edited by Syed Hasan, which highlighted many civic issues like drainage, sanitation, adulteration of food, and corruption.

In 1877, Maulvi Nasir Ali, one of the founders of Anjuman Islamia- the Islamic intellectual and political movement- founded 3 newspapers- Nusrat-ul-Akhbar, Nusrat-ul-Islam and Mihir-e-Darakhshan. All three focused on current civil and political affairs and were valuable aids of Muslim empowerment. In 1877, Oudh Punch, the first humour magazine in Urdu was started by Sajjid Hussain. The first women’s journal in Urdu was Akhbar-un-Nisa.

Urdu journalism took on a strongly nationalistic note towards the turn of the 20th century. Zameendar, was started in Lahore in 1903. It was the first Urdu newspaper to subscribe to news agencies. Zameendar was intensely nationalistic, which boosted its circulation to over 30,000 copies. In 1902, Maulvi Sanaullah Khan started the weekly Watan, meaning motherland. Watan was intensely nationalistic and continued for 33 years. Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar started Naqeeb-e-Hamdard in 1912. Another powerful political periodical was the Madina, edited by Hamidul Ansari.

The greatest Urdu periodical that time was Al Hilal, started by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. (refer notes).

In 1919, the Pratap was started in Lahore by Mahshe Krishnan. It vigorously supported Gandhi’s policies and the Indian National Congress. It was a victim of government harassment and suspended publication several times. It had great influence among the Urdu reading Hindus of Punjab and Delhi.

In 1923, Swami Shraddhanand founded the Tej with Lala Deshbandhu Gupta as editor. It had a wide circulation in Rajasthan, U.P. and Delhi. It was confiscated several times by the government and banned in a number of princely states. In the same year, 1923, the Arya Samaj started the Milap, a daily in Lahore. It was known for its powerful nationalistic editorials. Jawaharlal Nehru founded Qaumi Awaaz in 1945.

MARSIYA