marsiya

The word Marsiya is derived from the Arabic word marthiyya ({{langx|ar|{{naskh|مارْثِيَّه}}}}; root R-TH-Y), meaning a great tragedy or lamentation for a departed soul.{{cite web|url=http://www.umaamerica.net/magazine2005/magazine_poetry.asp |title=Poetry: Urdu Marsiya, Anees and his Poetry |access-date=2010-10-15 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822011919/http://www.umaamerica.net/magazine2005/magazine_poetry.asp |archive-date=August 22, 2010 }} Marsiya is a poem written to commemorate the martyrdom of Ahl al-Bayt, Imam Hussain and Battle of Karbala. It is usually a poem of mourning.{{Cite web |url=http://akchagla.com/Masters%20of%20Marsiya.htm |title=The Masters of Marsiya – Anees and Dabeer |access-date=2010-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110116024858/http://akchagla.com/Masters%20of%20Marsiya.htm |archive-date=2011-01-16 |url-status=dead }}

Marsiyas in Urdu first appeared in the sixteenth century in the Deccan kingdoms of India. They were written either in the two-line unit form, qasida, or the four-line unit form, murabba. Over time, the musaddas became the most suitable form for a marsiya. In this form, the first four lines of each stanza referred to as the band have one rhyme scheme while the remaining two line referred to as the tip have another.{{sfn|Naim|2004|pp=1, 2}} Poets who recite marsiyas are called marsiakhawan.

This form found a specially congenial soil in Lucknow, an important Shia Muslim community in the Indian subcontinent, where it was regarded as an act of piety and religious duty to eulogize and bemoan the martyrs of the battle of Karbala. The genre was championed by Mir Babar Ali Anis.

Famous marsiya writers in Urdu include Mir Babar Ali Anis, Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer, Ali Haider Tabatabai, Najm Afandi, Josh Malihabadi, and others. Well-known Persian poets of the genre include Muhtasham Kashani, Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan Qayamat and Samet Borujerdi. In Turkish, Bâkî composed an important marsiya.

Mir Babar Ali Anis, a renowned Urdu poet, composed salāms, elegies, nohas and quatrains. While the length of elegy initially had no more than forty or fifty stanzas, he pushed it beyond one hundred fifty or even longer than two hundred stanzas or bands, as each unit of marsiya in the musaddas format is known. Mir Anis drew upon the vocabulary of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, and Awadhi to a great degree.[http://jaunpurcity.in/about-2/marsiya/ Marsiya by Shiraz e Hind on May 15th, 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221100643/http://jaunpurcity.in/about-2/marsiya/ |date=2010-12-21 }} He has become an essential element of Muharram among the Urdu-speakers of the Indian subcontinent. The first major and still current critical articulation about Mir Anis was Muazna-e-Anis-o-Dabir (1907) written by Shibli Nomani in which he said "the poetic qualities and merits of Anis are not matched by any other poet".

Chhannu Lal Dilgeer (c 1780–c 1848), another marsiya poet, was born during the reign of Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah, the Nawab wazir of Oudh. He was initially a ghazal poet with the takhallus ‘Tarab’, before focusing on marsiya at a later stage. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Ghulam Hussain. His most popular marsiya is called Ghabraye Gi Zaynab, Ghabraye Gi Zaynab ({{langx|ur|{{nq|گھبراۓ گی زینب گھبراۓ گی زینب}}}}).[http://lucknowobserver.com/chhannu-lal-dilgeer/ Chhannu Lal Dilgeer]

• List of Marsiya writers in Urdu
• Shahr Ashob
• Urdu literature
• Urdu poetry
• Rekhta
• History of Urdu
• Waheed Akhtar
• Kashmiri Marsiya

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Naim|first=C. M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bfHLAeTXPgC|title=Urdu Texts and Contexts: The Selected Essays of C.M. Naim|date=2004|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-7824-075-6|language=en}}

• Soaz Salam Book [https://archive.org/details/soaz-salam-12-05-2023/Marsiya%2019-04-2023/]
• Marsiya Book https://archive.org/details/soaz-salam-12-05-2023/Marsiya%2019-04-2023/
• {{cite web|author=Rauf Parekh |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1055451/karbalai-marsiya-in-urdu-and-persian |title=Karbalai marsiya in Urdu and Persian |publisher=Dawn.Com |date=2013-11-11 |access-date=2014-01-01}}
• {{cite web|author=Rauf Parekh |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1058311/dabeer-new-marsiya-and-the-praise-me-virus |title=Dabeer, new marsiya and the 'praise-me' virus |publisher=Dawn.Com |date=2013-11-25 |access-date=2014-01-01}}
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jjHxObm8jgC&q=Marsiya+writers+in+Urdu&pg=PA25 |title=The Making of the Awadh Culture - Madhu Trivedi - Google Books |isbn=9788190891882 |access-date=2014-01-01|last1=Trivedi |first1=Madhu |year=2010 |publisher=Primus Books }}
• {{cite book|url=http://www.great-iran.com/PDFs/LITERACY-Language/Marsiye-Literacy-(Great-Iran-com).pdf |title=Appropriating an Iranian Literary Tradition: Marsiya in the Indian Context |author=Madhu Trivedi |publisher=great-iran.com |access-date=2014-01-01}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/15/19StuBarda.pdf |title=Value and Vitality in a Literary Tradition: Female Poets and the Urdu Marsiya |author=Amy Bard |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=2014-01-01}}

• [http://www.soazkhwani.com Soazkhwani by Professor Sibte Jafar Zaidi]
• [http://www.soazkhwani.com/soaz.html Soaz by Sibte Jaffer]
• [http://sites.google.com/site/syedaliausatzaidi/Home Soazkhwani by Syed Ali Ausat Zaidi]
• [https://www.facebook.com/azeemulmohsin Soazkhwani by Azeemul Mohsin]
• [https://mohammaditapebank.com/soaz/hasanabid.html Soazkhuani by Syed Hasan Abid Jafri]
• [https://mohammaditapebank.com/soaz/abidalvari.html Soazkhuani by Syed Abid Hussain (Hatif Alwari)]
• [https://mohammaditapebank.com/soaz/soazkhwani.html Soazkhuani by Muhammad Ali Naqvi]

Category:Urdu-language poetry

Category:Shia literature

Category:Cultural depictions of Husayn ibn Ali

{{Mourning of Muharram}}

{{Urdu poetry}}

Category:Islamic poetry

Category:Islamic terminology

Category:Laments

Category:Persian literature