2. INTRODUCTION/EARLY LIFE
Ab’ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusro moreover calledAmīr Khusro, was a Sufi composer,
writer and researcher. He was an eminent personalityinthe folk antiquity of the Indian
subcontinent. He was a spiritual and a divine believer of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi.
Amīr Khusro is presumedto have developedpositive musical instruments like the sitar
and tabla. He inscribedrhyme mainly in Persian, however likewise in Hindavi. A
terminologyinstanza, the Ḳhāliq Bārī, comprisingArabic, Persian, and Hindavi
expressions is everyso oftencreditedto him.
He is observedas the “father of Qawwali” (a religious music form of the Sufis in the
Indian subcontinent), inaddition he presentedthe ghazal style of melodyinto India, both
of which now also are broadly in India and Pakistan. He is similarlyattributedwith
bringing together Persian, Arabic and Turkish features into Indian traditional music and
was the inventor of the khayal and tarana styles of music.
He was a skilledin several styles of Persianverse which were developedin benighted
Persia, from Khāqānī’ sqasidas to Nizami’s khamsa. He utilizedeleven musical outlines
with thirtyfive different partitions. He has inscribedin many poetryforms togetherwith
ghazal, masnavi, qata, rubai, do-baiti and tarkib-band. His involvement to the
improvement of the g͟ hazal, is important.
3. CHARACTER TRAITS
The Islamic Golden Age was a periodof cultural, economic and scientific flourishingin
the historyof Islam, traditionallydated from the 8thcenturyto the 14thcentury.This
periodis traditionallyunderstoodto have begun during the reignof the Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) withthe inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad,
where scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were
mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic
language. This periodis traditionallysaid to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid
caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258 AD. A few
contemporaryscholars place the endof the Islamic GoldenAge as late as the end of 15th
to 16thcenturies.
Religions influence
The various Quranic injunctions and Hadith, which place values on educationand
emphasize the importance of acquiringknowledge, played a vital role ininfluencingthe
Muslims of this age in their searchfor knowledge and the development of the body of
science.
Government sponsorships
The Islamic Empire heavily patronizedscholars. The money spent on the Translation
Movement for some translations is estimatedto be equivalent to about twice the annual
researchbudget of the UnitedKingdom’s Medical ResearchCouncil. The best scholars
and notable translators, suchas Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries that are estimatedto be the
equivalent of professional athletestoday. The House of Wisdom was a library established
in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur
Diverse contributions
During this period, the Muslims showed a stronginterest inassimilatingthe scientific
knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. Many classic works of antiquity
that might otherwise have been lost were translatedfrom Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese,
4. Egyptian, and Phoeniciancivilizations into Arabic and Persian, and later in turn translated
into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin.
New technology
With a new and easier writing system, and the introductionof paper, informationwas
democratizedto the extent that, for probably the first time inhistory, it became possible
to make a living from onlywriting and sellingbooks.The use of paper spread from China
into Muslim regions in the eighth century, arriving in Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula
(modernSpain and Portugal) inthe 10thcentury. It was easier to manufacture than
parchment, less likelyto crackthan papyrus, and couldabsorb ink, making it difficult to
erase and ideal for keeping records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods
of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions far larger than any available in Europe
for centuries.It was from these countries that the rest of the worldlearned to make paper
from linen.
5. 3)MAJOR THEMES OF HIS WORK
Amir Khusrau (1253 - 1325) was a medieval poet, musician, courtier and historianpar
excellence. A disciple of Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, Khusrau was a devout
follower of the Chishtiyaorder while being associatedwith the courts of at least seven
kings of Delhi. His fluencyin Persian, the language of the court, and Hindavi, the
language of the commonpeople, enabledhim to compose poetry, riddles and historical
treatises inbothlanguages making his work accessible to all strataof society. A cultural
figure without parallel, he holds an exaltedpositioninthe international literaryand
cultural domains from Istanbul to Isfahan and Kabul to Rangoon
Hazrat Amir Khusrau, among the populace, is mainly cherishedfor his contributions to
music, the qawwali traditionand his vernacular Hindavi compositions. The exact
contributions of Amir Khusrau in the realm of music are still beingargued among
scholars and musicologists. Withinthe traditional musicianfamilies, however, Amir
Khusrau is reveredas an exponent of Hindustani music and attributedwith the creations
of many forms of musical compositions, includingmany instruments like sitar and tabla
Amir Khusrau’s works cover a broad continuum of genres, from poetryto prose riddles,
to creatingthe world’s earliest known dictionaryin1320 AD in both Persianand Hindavi.
He worked as a poet, writer, and courtier withmore than seven sultans of Delhi, from
Ghiyasuddin Balban to Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq
6. Poetry
Diwan:
Amir Khusrau collectedhis own poems at various stages in his life with extended
prefaces: Tuhfat- us- Sighar (Gift of Youth) 1273 A.D.; Wasat-ul-Hayat (Middle of Life)
1284AD;Ghurrat-ul-Kamal (Prime of Perfection) 1294A.D.; Baqiya Naqiya
(Miscellaneous Selections)1316 A.D.; and Nihayat-ul-Kamal (Extremityof Beauty) 1325
A.D. For each diwan, he composedaprose introduction. In most manuscripts (and
moderneditions) the poems ina given diwan are grouped by genre (usually with qasidas
first, thenstrophic poems, ghazals, qitas, and ruba’ is
Amir khusraw composedfive diwans at the different times andname as follow:
Tohfa-tus-seghr :
Means the present of earlyage .this is first Diwan of the lyrical poems;which was
completedabout 670 or 671/1272;when khusraw was 19 years old and contains the petry
he composedbetweenthe age of 16 and 19 years.
Wastul-hayat
means the middle age. This is his seconddivan which he wrote after
TOHFA-TUS-SEGHr
probably betweenthe age of 20-33;and accordingto him at the peak of his poetic
career’,completedabout 1286.
Ghurratul-kamaal
means the prime of perfectionthe thirddivan which he composedbetweenthe age of 34
and 4. The introductionof divan is written in detail andcontains debate anout his views on
poetics. This is also important as it provides informationabout his life.
7. BAQIYA-NAQVI meanstheremnant compiledat the age of 64 after alauddins death in
1316
NIHAYAT;UL-KAMAAL means theclimaxof perfectionyhe fifthand the last diwan
probably compiledbefore his death.
masnavi
Qiran-us-Sa’dain Means Reunion of the two Auspicious star. This masnavi narrates
about the historic reunionof Bughrakhan and his sinkaiqbad after along intrigue,written
in 1289
Miftah-ul- Futooh Means The key of the victories.Thisis about the victories of
Jalauddin khalaji , the founder of the khalaji dynasty , writtenin 1291
Masnavi Dowal Rani khizr khan is also known as Ishqiya , This is about the tragic
Romance between Gujarat’s Princess Dvual Rani and Ala-ud-Khalji son’s khizr khan
8. Masnavi Noh sepehr means the epic of the Nine the heavens,written in 1318. This is a
remarkable work of Khusrau, where he illustrate different aspects of India’s culture and
people.
Prose:
Khazain-ul-Futooh (1311)means The Treasures of victories .In this book (prose) he
has describedAlauddin khalaji’s militaryexpeditions
Afzal -ul- Fawaid (1319)is consideredas the Malfuzat (statement/utteroxe) of Hazrat
Nizamuddin Aulia.
Tughlaq Nama: means the book of the Tughlaq about the acheavement of Ghyasuddjn
Tughlaq and writtenin 1320
Khaliq-e-Bari is to attributedto him and is versifiedglossaryof Persianand Hindvi
works
9. Assistance to Music
Amīr Khusro is accredited for the development of the melodic instruments tabla. The
word‘tabla’ is derivative from an Arabic term, tabl that means “drum”. The growth of the
Tabla created from the requirement to have a drum that might be played from the top most in
the sitting position to permit additional multifaceted tempo configurations that were needed
for the new Indian Sufi vocal style of humming/singing and Zikr. All at once to supplement
the compound initial Sitar tunes that Amīr Khusro was creating. The Tabla utilizes a
“complex fingertip and hand percussive” method played from the topmost, nothing like the
Pakhawaj (old Dholak-like instrument) and mridangam which mostly use the full palm and
are sidelong in gesture and are more constrained in terms of sound complication.
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10. 4) CRITIC’S OPINION
Amīr Khusro was a creative conventional composer linkedwiththe majestic courtsof
over and above seven leaders of the Delhi Sultanate. He inscribedmany spiritedriddles,
melodies and traditional stories whichhave turnedout to be a portionof famous
philosophyin South Asia. His riddles are one of the greatest popular types of Hindavi
poesyin the present days. It is a categorythat includes dual entendre or puns. Countless
riddles by the composer have beendeliveredby verbal custom over the previous seven
centuries. Bymeans of his mythical production, Khusrau characterizes one of the primary
Indian stars with a factual multi ethnic or varied individuality.
Amīr Khusro was the writer of a Khamsa that competedwith that of the previous writer
of Persianblockbusters Nizami Ganjavi. His work was deliberatedto be one of the
excellent masterpieces of Persianpoesythroughout later centuries.
He composedprincipallyinPersianlanguage. A lot of Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) stanzas
are creditedto him, even though there is no proof for their workby Khusro afore 18th
century. The linguistic of the Hindustani rhymes seem to be comparatively contemporary.
He moreover composedabattle folksong in Punjabi. Furthermore, he spoke Arabic and
Sanskrit. His poesyis still chanted in the present days at Sufi monuments all through
Pakistan and India.
Devoted as he was to his poetry, Khusrau was a mystic at heart and a beloved disciple of
Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, to whom he dedicatedall his works. He was in awe of the
Sufi’s spiritual grandeur. In his later masnavis, he bestowedhis Sheikh with praise even
more beautiful than the sultans.
He met his spiritual mentor, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya at his grandfather’s house earlyin
his life. The friendshipbetween the Sheikh and Khusrau grew later and various accounts
tell us that he was Sheikh’s most favorite disciple. However, Hazrat Nizamuddin never
11. made him his Khalifa, and Khusrau remainedin the service of the royal courts till the end
of his life.
‘‘Gori So’e sej par, mukhpar daare kes
Chal Khusraughar apne,sanjhbha’i chahudes’’
Beauty sleeps onthe bed, her hair across her face.
Come Khusrau, let’s go home, night has set over this place:
This is the last doha, a two line poem, Amir Khusrau supposedlyrecitedat the grave of
his pir, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya..