Search

, Mīrzā Rad̲j̲ab ʿAlī Bēg ( ca. 1787-1867) early writer of Urdu fiction, born in Lucknow, for which city he retained great affection all his life. ¶ He was well educated, noted for his command of Arabic and Persian, as well as Urdu, and excelled in calligraphy. He was also an expert musician. He was trained in poetry by a pupil of Sūz [ q.v.], Nawāzis̲h̲. He was a friend of the poet G̲h̲ālib [ q.v.], who regarded him as the leading, Urdu prose writer of his age. Apparently, Surūr fell foul of the Nawwāb of Lucknow G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaydar S̲h̲āh, and had to leave for Cawn…

or mart̲h̲āt (A., pl. marāt̲h̲ī ) “elegy”, a poem composed in Arabic (or in an Islamic language following the Arabic tradition) to lament the passing of a beloved person and to celebrate his ¶ merits; rit̲h̲āʾ , from the same root, denotes both lamentation and the corresponding literary genre. 1. In Arabic literature. The origin of the mart̲h̲iya may be found in the rhymed and rhythmic laments going with the ritual movements performed as a ritual around the funeral cortège by female relatives of the deceased, before this role bec…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ G̲h̲ulām Hamdānī (1164-1240/1750-1824), a leading Urdu poet, was born at Amrōha ca. 60 miles east of Dihlī, the son of a highly respected man of modest means. He grew up proud, independent and honest, and quickly acquired a fluent command of Urdu and Persian, both poetry and prose. His ambition to become an Urdu poet took him to Dihlī in order to complete his studies: but he failed to find a patron and was driven by poverty, it is said, to eke out a living in commerce. After trying his fortunes elsewhere, he re…

(a.), pl. ḳiṣaṣ , the term which, after a long evolution, is now generally employed in Arabic for the novel, whilst its diminutive uḳṣūṣa , pl. aḳāṣīṣ , has sometimes been adopted, notably by Maḥmūd Taymūr [ q.v.] as the equivalent of “novella, short story”, before being ineptly replaced by a calque from the English “short story”, ḳiṣṣa ḳaṣīra . The sections of the following article are largely devoted to these literary genres as they are cultivated in the various Islamic literatures, even if the word ḳiṣṣa is not itself used by them. Although some Berber tongues use the Arabic term ( Iḳiṣṣt …

, Taṣadduḳ Ḥusayn (Nawwāb Mīrzā), Urdu poet (?-1871). He came from a family of physicians, and his paternal uncle, Mīrzā ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, was a distinguished medical officer in Lucknow at the court of the Nawwābs of Oudh (Awadh); S̲h̲awḳ himself was well educated, not only in medicine, but also in arts and sciences. He owed his skill in poetry to the guidance of Ātis̲h̲ [ q.v.]. He achieved for his mat̲h̲nawīs considerable fame in his lifetime, especially in Lucknow, and even discerning critics like Alṭāf Ḥusayn Ḥālī acknowledge his merits (in his Muḳaddima-yi s̲h̲iʿr-ō-s̲h̲āʿirī …

, k̲h̲wād̲j̲a ḥaydar ʿalī (d. 1263/1847), Urdu poet, was born in Faizabad (Fayḍābād [ q.v.]) probably around 1191/1778, according to A.L. Ṣiddīḳī (see Bibl ., below). His ancestors are said to have originated in Bag̲h̲dād, whence they came to Dihlī. His father moved from there to Fayḍābād and died during the poet’s youth. As a result, Ātis̲h̲’s formal education was curtailed, though he supplemented it by avid reading. In early manhood, he led the life of a fop and a roué, and carried a sword. But …

, “the Madman of Laylā”, or Mad̲j̲nūn Banī ʿĀmir, the name given to the hero of a romantic love story, the original form of which could date back as far as the second half of the 1st/7th Century. 1. In Arabic literature This imaginary character (acknowledged as such even by some Arab critics; see Ag̲h̲ānī , ed. Beirut, ii, 6, 11) has been furnished by the ruwāt with an ism and with a complete genealogy; Ḳays b. al-Mulawwaḥ b. Muzāḥim b. Ḳays b. ʿUdas b. Rabīʿa b. D̲j̲aʿda b. Kaʿb b. Rābīʿa b. ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa, but according to the evidence, …

, muḥammad ḥusayn (1830-1910), Urdu writer, was a leading exponent of “new” Urdu prose, and a pioneer of the reaction against the Persian tradition in Urdu poetry, with its emphasis on g̲h̲azal and its preoccupation with ornate, stylised language. Born in Dihlī, he was the son of one of the first leading journalists of north India. He was educated at Delhi College, and acquired a mastery of both Arabic and Persian. By 1854, he was editor of his father’s newspaper, the Dihlī Urdū Ak̲h̲bār . A love of poetry was fostered in him by the poet D̲h̲awḳ (1789-1854…

, Mīrzā Ḏj̲ānd̲j̲ānān (1111-95/1700-81), an Urdu poet and eminent Ṣūfī, was born in Tālābāg̲h̲, Mālwā. He was received into the Naḳs̲h̲abandī order by Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Badāʾūnī, and into the Ḳādirī order by Muḥammad ʿĀbid Sumāmī. He was shot in Dilhī by a S̲h̲īʿī fanatic in revenge for his critical remarks about the Muḥarram celebrations, but though he survived three days, he refused to identify his assailant to the Emperor. He was—and remains—a famous religious leader. He…

, minor Urdu poet of the 19th century; the exact dates of his birth and death do not seem to be recorded. He was the son of another poet, S̲h̲āh Ḥusayn Ḥaḳīḳat, and he achieved fame through his remarkable tad̲h̲kira [ q.v.] of Urdu poets, Sarāpā suk̲h̲an , completed after ten years’ work in 1269/1852-3 and first published in Lucknow in 1288/1860-1. G̲h̲azal s by over 700 poets are included. What makes this work unique is its arrangement. The poetry is grouped in about 50 chapters, each representing a part of the human body ranging from head to foot, hence the title Sarāpā [see ḳaṣīda. 4. In Urdu];…

(a.), anthology, selection of poetry. 1. In Arabic. Mediaeval tradition holds that the oldest anthology of Arabic poems is the small collection of celebrated pre-Islamic ḳaṣīda s variously known as “the seven long poems”, al-Muʿallaḳāt [ q.v.], al-Sumūṭ , etc. It is probably the oldest in conception. The early ʿAbbāsid period saw the compilation of the celebrated Mufaḍḍaliyyāt [ q.v.]. Al-Aṣmaʿī’s anthology of 92 ḳaṣīdas by 71 poets (44 of them D̲j̲āhilī), the Aṣmaʿiyyāt , received relatively little attention from mediaeval writers. A comment in the Fihrist ,…

(a.), dictionary. 1. Arabic Lexicography The word ḳāmūs/ḳawmas , from the Greek Ωχεανός appeared in Arabic, at the latest at the time of the Prophet, with the meaning of “the bottom, the very deepest part of the sea”. Nevertheless, following Ptolemy, the Arab geographers borrowed the Greek word again, in the form Uḳiyānūs , and applied it to “the mass of water surrounding the earth”, more particularly the Atlantic Ocean, which was called Uḳiyānūs al-muḥīṭ , then more simply al-Ḳāmūs al-muḥīṭ . As this latter term was employed in a metaphorical sense by al-Fīrūzābādī [ q.v.] as the title o…

(1140-1201/1727-86), Urdu poet noted for his mat̲h̲nawī s, was born in Dihlī, the son of Mīr Ḍāḥik, a poet of modest attainments who was satirised by Sawdā. Mīr Ḥasan had a liberal education, which included the Persian language, but apparently not Arabic. He learned the poetic art from his father and from Mīr Dard. After the sack of Dihlī in 1739 by Nādir S̲h̲āh, he emigrated with his father to Faizabad (or Fayḍābād [ q.v.]), the capital of Oudh or Awadh [ q.v.]. En route, they stayed at Dig, near Bharatpur, and joined the pilgrimage procession to the festival of the saint S̲…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Imām Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ (d. 1838), a leading Urdu poet of the Lucknow School, though often now considered more important as an arbiter of the language, as opposed to the literary Urdu of Dihlī. This is no doubt the reason for his tak̲h̲alluṣ Nāsik̲h̲ “abrogator”. He was born in Fayḍābād (Fayzabad), and became the adopted son and heir of a tent-maker, K̲h̲udā Bak̲h̲s̲h̲. He studied Persian and Urdu, and took Sawdā [ q.v.] as his model in poetry. His formative years were spent at the court of a nobleman Mīrzā Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ī, where he was able to indulge his preoccup…

(1857-1914), leading Urdu writer of the ʿAlīgaŕh Movement, was born into a well-to-do family at Bindūl, in the Aʿẓamgaŕh [ q.v.] District of the then United Provinces. Early in life he became preoccupied with the Ḥanafī law school, and acquired expertise in the languages and literatures of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. Islamic history and biography, and literary criticism in Persian and in general, became his métiers, and he composed poetry in both Persian and Urdu, but though superficially he seems to challenge comparison with that other ʿAlīgaŕh polygraph, Alṭāf Ḥusayn Ḥālī [ q.v.], he d…

(a.), the normal technical terms in Arabic and other Islamic literatures for the genre of panegyric poetry, the individual poem being usually referred to as umdūḥa (pl. amādīḥ ) or madīḥa (pl. madāʾiḥ ). The author himself is called mādiḥ or, as considered professionally, maddāḥ . The root itself is sometimes used without technical connotations, as also are commonly the various other roots signifying "praise": ḥ-m-d, m-d̲j̲-d, ḳ-r-ẓ, t̲h̲-n-y, ṭ-r-w/y, etc. 1. In Arabic literature. As both an independent unit and a component of the ḳaṣīda [ q.v.], the genre has been so widespread …