The ghazal is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. 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.
Qawwali is a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing originating in Hindustan. Originally performed at Sufi shrines or dargahs throughout Hindustan, it is famous throughout Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and has also gained mainstream popularity and an international audience as of the late 20th century.
In Persian, Turkic and Urdu poetry, the maqta' is the final bayt, or couplet, of a ghazal. In this sense, it is the opposite of the matla'. The poet's takhallus, or pen name, is usually employed in the maqta', often in very creative ways.
Nawab Mirza Khan Daagh Dehlvi was a poet known for his Urdu ghazals. He belonged to the old Delhi school of Urdu poetry.
In Persian, Turkic, Hindustani and Punjabi, the word takhallus means a pen name. Pen names were widely adopted by Persian, Turkic, Urdu and Punjabi poets.
In Persian, Turkic and Urdu poetry, the matla' is the first bayt, or couplet, of a ghazal. In this sense, it is the opposite of the maqta'. It is possible, although extremely rare, for there to be more than one matla' in a ghazal; in this case the second is referred to as matla'-e-sani, literally 'the second matla''. It is important part because it establishes the overall form and mood of the entire ghazal.
Momin Khan Momin was a late Mughal era poet known for his Urdu ghazals. A lesser-known contemporary of Ghalib and Zauq, he used "Momin" as his pen name. His grave is located in the Mehdiyan cemetery in Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi.
A shayar is a poet who composes sher or couplet'so slay' in Urdu poetry. A shayar is someone who writes ghazals, nazms using the Urdu, Hindi & Bangla language.
Naʽat is poetry in praise of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The practice is popular in South Asia, commonly in Bengali, Punjabi, or Urdu. People who recite Naʽat are known as Naʽat Khawan or sanaʽa-khuaʽan. Exclusive "Praise to Allah" and Allah alone is called Hamd, not to be confused with 'Na'at'.
Mir Muhammad Taqi, known as Mir Taqi Mir, was an Urdu poet of the 18th century Mughal India and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the principal poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal and is often remembered as one of the best poets of the Urdu language. His pen name (takhallus) was Mir. He spent the latter part of his life in the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow.
Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (1797–1869), also known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet. He was popularly known by the pen names Ghalib and Asad. His honorific was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula. During his lifetime, the already declining Mughal Empire was eclipsed and displaced by the British East India Company rule and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian Rebellion of 1857; these are described through his work.
Nazm is a major part of Urdu and Sindhi poetry that is normally written in rhymed verse and also in modern prose-style poems. Nazm is a significant genre of Urdu and Sindhi poetry; the other one is known as ghazal.
Mathnawi or masnavi is a kind of poem written in rhyming couplets, or more specifically "a poem based on independent, internally rhyming lines". Most mathnawī poems follow a meter of eleven, or occasionally ten, syllables, but had no limit in their length. Typical mathnawi poems consist of an indefinite number of couplets, with the rhyme scheme aa/bb/cc.
Rekhta was an early form of the Hindustani language. This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts and is considered an early form of Modern Standard Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi. According to the Pakistani linguist and historian Tariq Rehman, Rekhta was a highly Persianized register of Hindustani, exclusively used by poets. It was not only the vocabulary that was Persianized, but also the poetic metaphors, inspired by Indian landscapes and seasons, were abandoned in favor of the Persian ones i.e. bahaar (spring) replacing barsaat.
Shamim Karhani was an eminent Urdu poet ('Shayar') of the 20th century.
A marsiya is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hussain ibn Ali, his family, and his companions at the tragedy of Karbala. Marsiyas are essentially religious lamentations.
Siraj-ud-Din Ali Khan (1687-1756), also known by his pen-name Arzu, was a Delhi-based poet, linguist and lexicographer of the Mughal Empire. He used to write mainly in Persian, but he also wrote 127 couplets in Urdu. He was the maternal-uncle of Mir Taqi Mir. He taught Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda, Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan and Najm-ud-Din Shah Mubarak Abroo.
Syed Taqi Hassan Abedi is an Indian-Canadian physician who is also poet and scholar of the Urdu language.
Syed Ali Raza, known by his takhallus of Manzar Bhopali, is an Indian Urdu poet. He was born in Amravati. During his teenage years, Manzar started taking interest in poetry and attended his first mushaira at the age of 17. Over the course of 3 decades, he has penned more than a dozen books in Hindi and Urdu.
The Urdu ghazal is a literary form of the ghazal-poetry unique to the Indian subcontinent, written in the Urdu standard of the Hindostani language. It is commonly asserted that the ghazal spread to South Asia from the influence of Sufi mystics in the Delhi Sultanate.
