Ghazal
Videos
Page
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.
An illustrated headpiece from a mid-18th century collection of ghazals and rubāʻīyāt
Amir Khusrow teaching his disciples in a miniature from a manuscript of Majlis al-Ushshaq by Husayn Bayqarah. Amir Khusrow is considered the first Urdu poet
Layla visits Majnun in the wilderness; the story of Layla and Majnun is one of the most famous Arabic tales of unrequited, unconditional love
Arabic poetry
Videos
Page
Arabic poetry is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed in Arabic writing in material as early as the 1st century BCE, with oral poetry likely being much older still.
Illustration from Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs), 1216–20, by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, a collection of songs by famous musicians and Arab poets.
Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) listens to a poet