A marsiya (; ) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of

Hussain ibn Ali Husayn ibn Ali (; 11 January 626 – 10 October 680 CE) was a social, political and religious leader in early medieval Arabia. The grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an Alid (the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter ...

, his family, and his companions at the tragedy of

Karbala Karbala is a major city in central Iraq. It is the capital of Karbala Governorate. With an estimated population of 691,100 people in 2024, Karbala is the second largest city in central Iraq, after Baghdad. The city is located about southwest ...

. Marsiyas are essentially religious lamentations.A History of Urdu literature by T. Grahame Bailey; ''Urdu Poetry in Lucknow in the 19th century''
/ref>

Background

The word ''Marsiya'' is derived from the Arabic word ''marthiyya'' (;

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

R-TH-Y), meaning a great tragedy or lamentation for a departed soul. Marsiya is a poem written to commemorate the martyrdom of

Ahl al-Bayt () refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Sunni Islam, the term has also been extended to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. In Shia Islam, the term is limited to Muhammad, his daugh ...

Imam Hussain Husayn ibn Ali (; 11 January 626 – 10 October 680 CE) was a social, political and religious leader in early medieval Arabia. The grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an Alid (the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter ...

and

Battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala () was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 Hijri year, AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad caliph Yazid I () and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, th ...

. It is usually a poem of mourning. 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. Poets who recite marsiyas are called ''marsiakhawan''. This form found a specially congenial soil in

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, an important

Shia Muslim Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

community in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, where it was regarded as an act of piety and religious duty to eulogize and bemoan the martyrs of the

battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala () was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 Hijri year, AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad caliph Yazid I () and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, th ...

. The genre was championed by

Mir Babar Ali Anis Mir Babar Ali Anees (, 1800-1874), also known as Mir Anees was an Indian Urdu poet. He used his pen-name (takhallus) of Anees (Urdu: , ''Anees'' means "close friend, companion") in poetry. Anees used Persian, Urdu, Arabic, and Sanskrit words in ...

. Famous marsiya writers in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

include Mir Babar Ali Anis,

Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer (), (29 August 1803 – 6 March 1875) was an Urdu poet who excelled and perfected the art of Marsiya writing. He is considered the leading exponent of Marsiya Nigari or marsiya writing along with Mir Anees. Mirza Dab ...

, Ali Haider Tabatabai,

Najm Afandi Najm Afandi (1893–1975) نجم آفندی was an Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. I ...

Josh Malihabadi Josh Malihabadi (born Shabbir Hasan Khan; 5 December 1898 – 22 February 1982) popularly known as Shayar-e-Inqalab (poet of revolution) was Indian born Pakistani Urdu poet. Known for his liberal values and challenging the established o ...

, and others. Well-known Persian poets of the genre include

Muhtasham Kashani Muhtasham Kashani (1500–1588) () was an Iranian poet of the Safavid era. He was influential in Shi'ite religious poetry, especially '' marsiyah'' poetry mourning the tragedy of Ashura. He was born in Kashan Kashan (; ) is a city in ...

, Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan Qayamat and Samet Borujerdi. In Turkish,

Bâkî Bâḳî (باقى) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: مخلص ''mahlas'') of the Ottoman Turkish poet Mahmud Abdülbâkî (محمود عبدالباقى) . Considered one of the greatest contributors to Turkish literature. Bâkî came to b ...

composed an important marsiya.

, a renowned

poet, composed salāms, elegies,

noha A Nowheh, Nohay or Noha ( ''nowheh'', ; translit. ''nūḥa/nawḥa''; ), when interpreted in light of Shia views, is an elegy about the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali and his family and companions in the Battle of Karbala. Marsiya and Nowheh hav ...

s and

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...

s. 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 ''band''s, as each unit of marsiya in the ''musaddas'' format is known. Mir Anis drew upon the vocabulary of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Persian,

, Hindi, and

Awadhi Awadhi may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Awadh or Oudh region in Uttar Pradesh, northern India ** Awadhi people, ethnic group of India *** Awadhi language Awadhi, also known as Audhi, is an Indo-Aryan language belonging ...

to a great degree. He has become an essential element of

Muharram Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...

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 Shibli Nomani (4 June 1857 – 18 November 1914) was an Indian Islamic scholar, poet, philosopher, historian, educational thinker, author, orator, reformer and critic of orientalists during the British Raj. He is regarded as the father of Urdu ...

in which he said "the poetic qualities and merits of Anis are not matched by any other poet".

Chhannu Lal Dilgeer Chhannu Lal Dilgeer, a marsiya poet of Urdu, was born about 1780 at Lucknow, British India in the current Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and died in 1848. He used ''Dilgeer'' as his pseudonym. Early life and family He was born in a Hindu family ...

(c 1780–c 1848), another marsiya poet, was born during the reign of Nawab

Asaf-ud-Daulah Mirza Asaf-ud-Daula (23 September 1748 – 21 September 1797) was the Nawab wazir of Oudh ratified by Shah Alam II, from 26 January 1775 to 21 September 1797, and the son of Shuja-ud-Dowlah. His mother and grandmother were the Begums of Oud ...

, the

Nawab wazir of Oudh The Nawab of Awadh or Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers of Kingdom of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in northern India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to an Iranian dynasty''Encyclopædia Iranica'', R. B. B ...

. He was initially a

ghazal ''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...

poet with the

takhallus In Persian language, Persian, Turkic languages, Turkic, Hindustani language, Hindustani and Punjabi language, Punjabi, the word ''takhallus'' (from Arabic , ; ; ; ; , ) means a pen name. Pen names were widely adopted by Persian, Turkic, Urdu and Pu ...

‘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'' ().Chhannu Lal Dilgeer
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References

Cited sources

External links

* Soaz Salam Boo

* Marsiya Book https://archive.org/details/soaz-salam-12-05-2023/Marsiya%2019-04-2023/ * * * * *
Soazkhwani by Professor Sibte Jafar ZaidiSoazkhwani by Syed Ali Ausat ZaidiSoazkhwani by Azeemul Mohsin
Urdu-language poetry Shia literature Cultural depictions of Husayn ibn Ali {{Urdu poetry Islamic poetry Islamic terminology Laments Persian literature

Background

See also

References

Cited sources

External links