The word ghazal originates from the Arabic word غزل (ġazal). This genre of Arabic poetry is derived from غَزَل (ḡazal) or غَزِلَ (ḡazila) - To … 展开

The Ghazal tradition is marked by the poetry's ambiguity and simultaneity of meaning. Learning the common tropes is key to understanding the … 展开

Unconditional, superior love
A common theme is unconditional love for a higher being or for a mortal beloved which may lift the poet into … 展开

Enormous collections of ghazal have been created by hundreds of well-known poets over the past thousand years in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu as well … 展开

The ghazal is a short poem consisting of rhyming couplets, called bayt or sher. Most ghazals have between seven and twelve bayts. For a poem to be considered a true ghazal, it must have no fewer than five couplets. Almost all ghazals confine themselves to less than … 展开

Origins in Arabia
The ghazal originated in Arabia in the 7th century, evolving from the qasida, a much older pre-Islamic Arabic poetic form. Qaṣīdas were typically … 展开

Ghazals were written by Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi Shirazi of Persia; the Turkic poets Yunus Emre, Fuzuli and Nasimi in the Ottoman Empire; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal 展开