Urdu Academy presents Ghazal Ka Safar
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Ghazal ka safar (The journey of Urdu Ghazal) was the topic of the December 25, 2016 literary session of the Urdu Academy. The event was held at the Chandni Restaurant in Newark, CA.
Moiz Khan presented a well researched maqala on the Urdu Ghazal which spread into South Asia in the 12th century by the influence of Sufi mystics and the courts of the new Muslim sultanates. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Dari (Persian) poetry and Urdu poetry, it is now found in the poetry of many languages on the Indian Subcontinent.
Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, ghazals are often sung by Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian musicians. The form has roots in seventh-century Arabia,[citation needed] and gained prominence in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century. Thanks to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafiz and later due to Indian poets such as Mirza Ghalib. In the eighteenth-century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu. Among these poets, Ghalib is the recognized master.
Ghazal, is a set of two liner couplets, which strictly should end with the same rhyme and should be within one of the predefined meters of Ghazals. There has to be minimum of five couplets to form a Ghazal. Couplets may or may not have same thought. It is one of the most difficult forms of poetry as there are many strict parameters that one needs to abide by while writing Ghazal. It is important to think about the topic as well as the theme of a Ghazal before starting to write it. The first line of a Ghazal must include a Refrain, which is a word or a phrase that can be easily fitted into the other couplets. Each couplet of a Ghazal is known as Sher, which forms a Shayari. Thus, it means that different Shayaris together form a Ghazal.
Today, Ghazal is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. Meer, Dard, Ghalib, Anees, Dabeer, Iqbal, Zauq, Josh, Akbar, Jigar, Faiz, Firaq, Shakeb Jalali, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Shair, Mohsin, Faraz and Faizi are among the greatest poets of Urdu.
Moiz Khan selected 13 Ghazal poets spanning the whole era of Urdu ghazal from Amir Khusroo to contemporary poets. As usual 13 Urdu enthusiasts recited ghazals of prominent poets. Singhu Singh stole the show with her melodious presentation of Parveen Shakir’s ghazal Koo Ba Koo Phail Gayee Baat Shana-saee Kee.
Here is detail about prominent poets’ whose poetry was recited.
1. Dr. Ghazala Ansari (Amir Khusroo) 2. Noor Farooqi (Wali Dakkani) 3. Tashie Zaheer (Siraj Aurangabadi) 4. Abdus Sattar Ghazali (Meer Taqi Meer) 5. Tassaduq Attari (Mirza Ghalib) 6. Kausar Syed (Chakbasat) 7. Mobeen Khalil (Firaaq Gorakhpuri) 8. Hatim Rani (Tilouk Chand) 9. Zafar Yousufzai (Faiz Ahmed Faiz) 10. Kausar Syed (Shakeel badayuni) 11. Zafar Shah Naqvi (Ahmed Faraz) 12. Dr. Ghazala Ansari (Saleem) 13. Sindhu Singh (Parveen Shakir)
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