Ghazal

An illustrated headpiece from a mid-18th century collection of ghazals and rubāʻīyāt

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]

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.


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  1. ^ "A new Hindustani-English dictionary". dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu. 1879. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Meaning of ghazal in English". Rekhta Dictionary. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  3. ^ "Ghazal". Poetry Foundation. 9 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  4. ^ Jalajel, David. "A Short History of the Ghazal". The Ghazal Page Journal. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  5. ^ "Types of Urdu mark: Ghazal" Archived 2020-11-02 at the Wayback Machine,"Urdu Mark",August 8, 2012

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