Urdu poetry

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Urdu poetry (Urdu: اردو شاعری, Urdu Shayari) is one of the most dominant and prominent poetries of times and has many different colours & types. It has generated its root from Arabic and mainly from Persian and is an important part of Indian culture and Pakistani culture.

Like other languages, the history of Urdu Poetry does not have a firm starting point and shares origins and influences with other linguistic traditions within the Urdu-Hindi-Hindustani mix. Literary figures as far back as Kabir (1440 - 1518) and even Amir Khusro (1253-1325 AD) deserve mention as influences later Urdu poets draw on for inspiration as well as intellectual and linguistic sources. Meer, Dard, Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz are among the greatest poets of Urdu. The tradition is centered in the subcontinent. Following the Partition of India in 1947, it found major poets and scholars residing primarily in modern Pakistan and India. Mushairas (or poetic expositions) are today held in almost every major metropolitan area in the world. Over this period, Urdu poets have produced a large number of primarily poetic works.

[edit] Formation

Urdu poetry forms itself with following basic ingredients:

Bait (بیت)
Bait-ul-Ghazal (بیت الغزل)
Beher (بحر)
Diwan (دیوان)
Husn-E-Matla (حسنِ مطلع)
Kalam (کلام)
Kulyat (کلیات)
Maqta (مقطع)
Matla (مطلع)
Mavra (ماوراء)
Misra (مصرع)
Mushaira (مشاعرہ)
Qaafiyaa (قافیہ)
Radif (ردیف)
Sher (شعر)
Shayar (شاعر)
Shayari (شاعری)
Tah-Tul-Lafz (تحت اللفظ)
Takhallus (تخلص)
Tarannum (ترنم)
Triveni (تریوینی)

[edit] Genres

The major genres of poetry found in Urdu are:

Doha (دوہا)
Fard (فرد)
Geet (گیت)
Ghazal (غزل), as practiced by many poets in the Arab tradition. Mir, Ghalib, Dagh and Faiz are well-known composers of ghazal.
Hamd (حمد)
Hazal (ہزل)
Hijv (ہجو)
Kafi (کافی)
Madah (مدح)
Manqabat (منقبت)
Marsia (مرثیہ)
Masnavi (مثنوی)
Munajat (مناجات)
Musaddas (مسدس)
Mukhammas (مخمس)
Naat (نعت)
Nazm (نظم)
Noha (نوحہ)
Qasida (قصیدہ)
Qat'ã (قطعہ)
Qawwali (قوالی)
Rubai (رباعی) (a.k.a. Rubayyat or Rubaiyat) (رباعیات)
Salam (سلام)
Sehra (سہرا)
Shehr a'ashob (شہر آشوب)
Soz (سوز)
Wasokht (وسوخت)

Foreign forms such as the sonnet, azad nazm or(Free verse) and haiku have also been used by some modern Urdu poets.

[edit] Pen names (Takhallus)

In the Urdu poetic tradition, most poets use a pen name called the takhallus. This can be either a part of a poet's given name or something else adopted as an identity. The traditional convention in identifying Urdu poets is to mention the takhallus at the end of the name. Thus, Ghalib, whose given name was Mirza Asadullah Beg (the prefix Mirza and suffix Beg identifying him as a Chughtai) and official name and title was Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan is referred to formally as Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, or, in common parlance, as just Mirza Ghalib. An interesting sidebar to this is that some poets end up having a part of their name repeated; thus, Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

The word takhallus is derived from Arabic, meaning "ending". This is because in the ghazal form, the poet would usually incorporate his or her pen name into the final couplet (maqta) of each poem as a type of 'signature'.

[edit] Scripts used in Poetry

In both India and Pakistan, Urdu poetry is written in the beautiful Nasta'liq calligraphy style of the Perso-Arabic script. However, in India, where Urdu poetry is very popular, the Perso-Arabic is often found transliterated into the Devanāgarī script, as an aid for those Hindī-speakers, who can comprehend Urdu, but cannot read the Perso-Arabic script. With the dawn of the internet and globablisation, this poetry is often found written in Roman Urdu today. One of the more modern poets of Urdu poetry is Farhat Shahzad.