Analysis of the Genre System in Afghan Poetry from the Sixteenth to
Seventeenth Centuries
Abdurahim M. Mannonov
a
Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Keywords: Mulla Arzank, Poets of Roshan, Afghan Pashto, Persian language, Durүany, Poetic alias (tahallus), Gazelle,
Urdu.
Abstract: This article examines the characteristics of the genre system of Afghan poetry at the turn of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. At the same time, the traditions of Sufi poetry also had an impact, according to which
the ghazal was not only recited but also performed accompanied by musical instruments to enhance the impact
of the idea being propagated. In addition, the main part of the divans in the Persian language and other literary
traditions of the medieval East, as a rule, were ghazals. The sofas of the Roshan poets are no exception to this
rule since they attached paramount importance to ghazal lyrics.
1 INTRODUCTION
Apparently, in the history of every national literature
some periods become milestones in its development
and mark the birth of new forms, genres, trends, and
styles. In the history of Afghan (Pashtun) classical
literature, one of such periods was the second half of
the XVI - mid-XVII centuries, when, under the direct
influence of the ideology of the religious-Sufi sect of
Roshani, the first major literary movement was born
and developed in Pashto. Thanks to the activities of
such representatives of this trend as Bāyazid Anǖārҝ
(1521–1572), Mulla Arzānk (lived between 1550-
1620), Mirzā-khan Anǖārҝ (1581–1630), 'Alҝ
Muhammad Muʯliǖ (lived between 1580-1620)
1660), Daulat Lavan (died approximately 1660),
Vāǖil (beginning of the 16th century), Karkmad (17th
century), etc., for the first time poetic genres, styles,
prose treatises, divans of poems were formed in the
Pashto language.
Roshan poets were the first to widely use such
poetic forms as gazelle (khazal), ұasҝda, rubā‘ҝ, etc.,
which they borrowed from the rich artistic arsenal of
Persian-language poetry. Of course, the process of
mastering poetic genres and introducing them into a
new language environment does not mean only filling
ready-made samples with new language material.
a
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3570-3455
This very complex and painstaking process
required from the Roshan poets not only a perfect
knowledge of Farsi but also an understanding of the
literary and artistic possibilities of their native
language. In addition, a comprehensive study of the
entire previous Muslim literary tradition was
required, in particular Arab-Persian poetry, as well as
Sufi philosophy and poetry, which had previously
become widespread in India, the countries of the Near
and Middle East. At the same time, it was extremely
important to master the technique of poetry, based on
the oral folk poetic tradition, which allowed the
Roshanians to quickly master and recreate literary
forms “alien” to them in Pashto.
Since childhood, Roshan poets knew popular folk
rituals, non-ritual songs, and other genres of oral folk
poetry. They also knew that in Pashtun folklore there
are artistic forms that, with their external ethical and
other rhythm-organizing components, are close to
such traditional book lyrical poems of Persian-
language literature as the gazelle, rubā ‘k. It is known
that these genres developed among the people long
before the appearance of original poems borrowed
from Persian-language poetry. Thus, quatrains and
ghazals and similar poetic forms, conventionally
called folk, can be found in such ancient romantic
legends of the Pashtuns as “Ādam-үān and
Durүānyy,” “Tālibjān and Gulbashara,” etc.
Although these forms have a long tradition of use,
1040
Mannonov, A.
Analysis of the Genre System in Afghan Poetry from the Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries.
DOI: 10.5220/0012949600003882
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 2nd Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR-2 2023), pages 1040-1047
ISBN: 978-989-758-723-8
Proceedings Copyright © 2024 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.

they have not yet been studied by Afghan philologists
in full and exhaustively.
One thing can be stated with complete confidence:
for the Roshani poets, the traditions and experience of
poetry in the oral poetry of the Afghans were one of
the fundamental factors on the path to mastering and
recreating Arab-Persian poetic genres in Pashto.
2 DISCUSSIONS
The dominant place in their creative heritage is
occupied by the gazelle (ﻝﺰﻏ). This, apparently, is
explained by the fact that it was known and popular
among the people, optimal in volume, flexible in
form, convenient for embodying and promoting the
Sufi, religious and didactic views of the Roshani
leader - Bāyazҝd Anǖārk. At the same time, the
traditions of Sufi poetry also had an impact, according
to which the ghazal was not only recited but also
performed accompanied by musical instruments to
enhance the impact of the idea being propagated. In
addition, the main part of the divans in the Persian
language and other literary traditions of the medieval
East, as a rule, were ghazals. The sofas of the Roshan
poets are no exception to this rule since they attached
paramount importance to ghazal lyrics.
Over the past half-century, several books have
been written about the birth and evolution of the
gazelle in the Arab, Persian-Tajik, Uzbek, Uyghur,
Urdu and other literary traditions, about their, as D.S.
Likhachev famously put it, “theoretical history.”
special works and numerous articles, important
conclusions were drawn. At the same time, several
theoretical problems of the genre are still waiting to
be solved. These are questions of the formation of the
ghazal as a special type of poetry, its thematic and
formal poetic classification; determining the nature of
the connection between literary forms of ghazal and
folk poetry, folk, and professional music; the problem
of the relationship between the ghazal and аруựna and
other systems of versification, the classification of its
types and modifications, the determination of the
paths and prospects for its development in national
literature; structural and semantic features of beit as a
component of a ghazal, the significance of this poetic
genre for the work of individual poets; the problem of
transformation of the classical ghazal and its
influence on the modern one, etc.
One thing is clear: having gone through the path
of artistic and poetic evolution, in the 12th-13th
centuries. the ghazal was canonized and to this day
remains a monorhyme poem (sometimes the rhyme is
followed by radҝf), numbering most often from seven
to twelve beits, with the obligatory rhyming of both
hemistich in the first beit-maula‘ (aa, then ba, wa...)
and the obligatory mention of the poetic name
(tahallus) of the poet in the last beit, called maұǚa or
үātima.
The history of the ghazal gives literary scholars
reason to believe that this is, first of all, a genre of
love lyrics (cf. “khazal” - “to look after” (a woman),
“to be kind,” “to sing the praises of a woman”).
However, as A.M. Mirzoev correctly points out, the
theme of the gazelle is by no means limited to
intimate lyrics. On the contrary, it can express issues
of ethics, philosophy, Sufism, didactics, and
problems of social protest. In other words, the theme
of the ghazal covers not only the intimate experiences
of the individual but also issues of public life”.
An important stage in the development of the
ghazal was the 13th–16th centuries, when, through
the efforts of great poets - Sa‘dҝ Shҝrāzҝ, Amҝra
Үosrova Dehlavҝ, Ңāfiǜa, Dzhamҝ, Navāҝ, Fuựһlҝ,
and many others, it acquired a perfect form and
thematic versatility.
If until the XIII century, the ghazal developed
only on Arab and Persian-Tajik soil, then from the
XIII century it penetrated other literary traditions, in
particular Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Urdu, Uyghur, etc. As
a result, the ghazal is significantly enriched as a
genre, having absorbed the national identity of these
traditions.
In Pashtun literature, the ghazal was mastered
relatively later than in other literary traditions of the
Near and Middle East. The issues of the formation
and development of the ghazal in Pashtun poetry have
not yet been fully studied. Meanwhile, an analysis of
the sources convinces us that as a poetic genre, it
existed in Pashtun literature already at the end of the
XIV - beginning of the XV century. Proof of this is
the materials cited by Munammad Hotak (XVIII
century) in the anthology of Pashtun poets “Hidden
Treasure”, as well as samples of ghazals included in
the “History of Afghan Literature” by Ǖidҝullāh
Rishtun, “Afghan Poets” and “History of Afghan
Literature” Abd al-gaya Ңabҝbҝ. Thus, Muhammad
Hotak for the first time cites ghazals of such poets of
the XV-XVI centuries, as Shaiү 'Isā Myshvā¬nay
(born around 900 AH, i.e. 1488/89), 'Alҝ Sarvar Lodҝ
(born around 960 AH, i.e. 1552/53 ) and Munammad
Ǖālin (lived approximately 1000 AH, i.e. 1596).
Along with the ‘A. Ңabҝbҝ and Ǖ. Rishtҝn also
mentions the names of other poets who, apparently,
were not known to Munammad Hotak. Among them
is Zamҝndāvaray Аkbar (or Akbar Zamundavarai),
who, according to modern Afghan literary scholars,
lived in 780 AH. (i.e. in 1378/79). This dating is
Analysis of the Genre System in Afghan Poetry from the Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
1041

based on a source unknown to us. If it is reliable, then
this means that Zamҝndāvaray Аkbar is one of the
founders of the Afghan ghazal, since, as stated by ‘A.
Ңabҝbҝ and Ǖ. Rishtҝn, is the author of Divan poems
written in Pashto and Farsi.
Thus, we have seven ghazals by poets of the 15th–
16th centuries, written in Pashto. These are two
ghazals by Zamҝndāvaray Аkbar, one by Shayүa ‘Isā
Myshvānaya, dve – ‘Аlҝ Sarvara Lodҝ, i dve -
Muңammada Ǖāliңa. They were the predecessors of
the Roshan poets. Perhaps the ghazal was formed in
Afghan literature even earlier, that is, at the beginning
of the XIV century.
The further rapid development of the ghazal in
Pashtun literature is directly related to the work of
Roshani poets, who are credited with the complete
“adaptation” of this genre to the new linguistic soil.
Subsequently, it formed and established itself as the
dominant poetic form in Afghan literature until the
50s of the XX century.
The themes of the ghazals of the Roshan poets are
not very diverse. The vast majority of their ghazals
are aimed at chanting and promoting the teachings of
Bāyazҝda Аnǖārҝ and have Sufi-metaphysical,
religious-philosophical and didactic content. In
accordance with this, a peculiar religious,
philosophical and Sufi vocabulary predominates in
these ghazals.
The dominant position of the Sufi-doctrinal theme
and the preaching nature of the presentation
significantly influenced the external form and
compositional structure of Roshanian ghazals.
Researchers claim that the traditional volume of a
gazelle, accepted in Persian and Turkic poetry,
corresponded to five to fifteen beits. In general,
corresponding to this tradition, the ghazals of Roshan
poets include, as a rule, from 9 to 13 beits, with a
noticeable tendency to increase this volume. Perhaps
this was influenced by Sufi-doctrinal themes, which
did not “fit” into the traditional framework of this
genre. In any case, ghazals of Roshani authors often
consist of 16, 18, or even 25 beits.
Studying the features of the external and internal
form of the gazelle, researchers argue about its
compositional structure. The most accepted opinion
is that they are divided into a) monothematic (plot-
based) and b) polythematic (plotless). In the first case,
the logical connection between beats is prescribed by
the genre form or certain stylistic devices. Moreover,
the gazelle is entirely devoted to one specific topic.
The creation of single-topic ghazals required great
skill and poetic experience from the poets, since
within the framework of a relatively small poem it
was necessary to reveal the theme and, at the same
time, achieve a compositionally perfect form. We
have a large number of excellent examples of the
Persian language, Turkic language, and other mono-
dark (plot) ghazals.
Polythematic ghazals are characterized, first of
all, by the fact that each beit in the poem can have a
certain “semantic independence”. At the same time,
there seems to be no logical connection between the
bits. Each beit is perceived as a complete fragment,
an independent strophic unit - a couplet within the
same ghazal. The connection between the beits and
the integrity of the poem in this case “is perceived
associatively, formally and emotionally”. The most
numerous and magnificent examples of this type of
gazelle are presented in the works of the great poet of
Persian medieval literature, Qāfiǜa Shҝrāzҝ.
In the poetic tradition of Roshani authors, the
monothematic type of ghazal undoubtedly prevails.
As an example, let us give a plot ghazal from the
divan of Murzā-үāna Anǖārҝ:
Today I saw how tenderly my beloved walked,
I zealously put myself in order, and now I’m
getting ready
to battle [with me].
Her white face is amazing, nets of curls bloom
across it,
She decorated the mole, and now she does a lot of
tricks.
Both of her eyebrows are black-black, painted
with basma on top.
They are like the new moon, and her coquetry is
charming.
Her two eyes [burn like] lamps,
And she turned [her] eyelashes into arrows, [with
which]
boldly hits the target.
She also put earrings in her nostrils and chains
dangling,
[Which] are like a fisherman’s prison, now
captivating hearts.
Her lips are [like] a cup, each tooth is a pearl,
She has a dimple on her chin and also controls her
tongue.
When [the lover] ended up in the Shah's dungeon,
he had no
there was no hope of liberation,
She can turn into a Majhn [lover]; To
She approaches every task with prudence.
What amazingly white fingers and on them
[painted
henna] marigolds,
She covered her face with a corner of her veil and
was quick in her looks.
My beloved left the house today to hunt
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for the hearts of [lovers],
Every thief steals on a dark night when the
watchman falls asleep,
But the beloved is not afraid of anyone, she robs
even then,
when he is awake.
She stole Murza’s heart, [but] he is not afraid of
torment,
His punishment is even heavier because he is
friends with shān
(i.e. beloved).
The object of the image is the beauty of the
beloved and her quirks. The poet skilfully uses the
favourite syntactic-stylistic device of Eastern poetics
- tadrj, in accordance with which each beit
participates in revealing the image of the beloved and
develops the thought of the previous one. Along with
this, as a necessary addition, the inner experiences of
the lyrical hero are also revealed. The depiction of the
beloved is carried out as if in three stages,
corresponding to the three elements of the plot:
beginning, development and denouement. So, at the
very beginning, a fluttering beauty appears before us,
diligently putting herself in order. She is preparing for
a “battle”, i.e. wants to appear before her lover in all
her beauty (set). Next, its beauty and vagaries
(development) are described. And finally, an image
of the beloved’s victory over the beloved’s heart. He
is not afraid of the torment caused by her, and
therefore, in spite of everything, he will continue to
love his beauty (denouement).
Along with the description of the traditional
Eastern features of the external beauty and character
of the heroine, it is easy to notice some elements of
“Pashtunization” of her image, for example, a
description of her jewellery, green moles, earrings in
her nostrils, etc.
Speaking about the monothematic Roshani
ghazals, it should be noted that in poems of Sufi-
philosophical, religious-didactic content, not related
to the reflection of deep human experiences, it is quite
difficult to maintain a single storyline, although the
logical connection between Nevertheless, it holds up
with the beatings. To do this, poets resort to various
arguments, and reminiscences from various areas of
love, philosophy, and other topics. As a result, lyrical,
religious, didactic and philosophical principles are
intertwined in the ghazal.
Polythematic ghazals are much less common in
the divans of Roshan poets. Let us give an example of
a polythematic ghazal from the divan of Daulat
Lavāỵay:
The nightingale screams so [zealously] that there
is no spring for him,
The sweet time of life is leaving him, but there is
no flower garden.
Carefree [sitting] is forbidden for a tormented
heart,
When his beautiful companion is not in the house,
[Roses] bloomed many times in the flower
garden,
Where can there be roses that have no thorns?
If you come through the drinking house of love,
[You will see that] everyone in it is drunk, and
there is not a sober person among them.
Don’t take the cup [of wine]
This wine will bring joy, and there is no hangover
from it.
The unknown cannot compete with [Bayazd]
Roshan,
An ignorant foul-mouthed man cannot know
about the secret
essence [of God].
Saints [like Bayazd] in an era are isolated, O
Daulat,
In vain they make the claim that [for the
appearance]
there's no line for saints.
It seems that there is no semantic or figurative
connection between the beits, that is, each beit has a
special position. However, the poem is perceived as a
single whole due to its ghazal structure and
emotionally charged form, in which rhyme (ұāfiya)
and the happy word “no” (in Pashto-Nashta) carry
special loads.
Radf as an auxiliary element of artistry is very
characteristic of the poetry of the Roshanians. It
occupies a particularly large place in the works of
Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ and Daulat Laỵay. It serves not
only as a means of external decoration or consonance
of the verse but is also one of the essential
components of its internal compositional structure.
The role of radf is especially important in plotless
ghazals, where it acts as the main core of the verse,
determining its composition. Here both thought and
other visual means are, as it were, subordinated to
radf. This is a kind of compositional and thematic
node of the poem, on which poets concentrate all their
attention on the initial, final instance of the ghazal.
Without radf, not only will the ideological concept of
the ghazal suffer, but also its artistic value and
consonance.
It should be noted that not all words can play such
an important organizational, semantic and expressive
role. As N.I. Prigarina correctly noted, “When a
meaningful word becomes radf, it creates the
appearance of sanitization due to its euphoric
position, causing a shift of attention to the end of the
Analysis of the Genre System in Afghan Poetry from the Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
1043

line and pairing the meaning of the beyt with this
word. The presence of the obligatory vocabulary of
semantic radf also, to a certain extent, influences the
content of the beits, thus determining their certain
thematic unity”.
In its development, the gazelle underwent several
modifications. According to the Uzbek scientist O.
Nasirov, it has nine modifications. The most common
is the so-called ordinary ghazal, the rhyme system of
which (such as aa, ba, wa, da, etc.) is maintained
throughout the text of the poem. Meanwhile, there are
other types of rhyme, for example, aa, aa, ba, va..., or
aa, aa, aa, etc. These modifications, according to O.
Nasirov, are characteristic of dialogical, bilingual and
other types of ghazals.
The poetry of the Roshanians is characterized by
six modifications. The most common is the common
gazelle, samples of which we found in the divans of
Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ, ‘Alҝ Muangm¬mada Muүliǖa
and Daulat Lavāỵaya. These are ghazals of the
“khazali husni maʻla‘ type with the rhyme system aa,
aa, ba, va, ga, etc., as well as the “khazali ұiǚa” type
(ab, vb, gb, db...). Ten ghazals in the diwan of these
poets are written in Farsi-Pashto and Pashto-Farsi,
one, by Daulat Lavāỵaya, in Pashto-Urdu. Several
ghazals of 'Alҝ Munammad Muuliǖa in the form of an
address (munād¬zhāt) to God with the rhyme aaaa
have been discovered, aaaa, aaaa, etc., where inside
each line and at its end there are two consecutively
rhyming words. Consequently, there are four of them
in one beat. Ghazals with similar rhymes in form and
melody are reminiscent of short-line folk lyrical
songs of the Pashtuns and require great skill from the
poet. If you separate each line-miǒra from the rhyme,
you will get the same number of strophic quatrains
with the rhyme aaaa as there are beits in the ghazal.
In the poetry of the Roshanians, several more
modifications of the ghazal with internal rhyme stand
out. The most common type is considered to be
“khazali musaj’zha”. Schematically this type looks
like this:
------------------------------------а
----------------а-------------------а
----------------б-------------------б
----------------б-------------------а
----------------в-------------------в
----------------в-------------------а
etc. There are other options, in particular, such as:
-------------------------------------а
-------------------------------------а
-----------------б-------------------б
-------------------------------------а
-----------------в-------------------в
-------------------------------------а
The types of rhyme under consideration provide
the internal melody and mnemonics of the verse and
are very close to the genres of oral poetry. It is clear
that modifications of this type are used by Roshani
poets, as well as other Sufi poets, not only to give the
ghazal melody and consonance. They are, first of all,
intended for propaganda and dissemination of the
Sufi worldview. They are also important because
from them one can derive another strophic poem –
murabba’ (bbba, vvva...), if each line - mira (except
for the first two) is divided into two parts. So in one
of his ghazals Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ beautifully uses this
poetic type:
1-misra: tǝ bemīla bepāyān ye,
таңұиұ шǝве бегумāн йе,
2-misra: пǝ хастҝ дǝ хар чā кāн йе,
тǝр хар кāн пǝр мā лаǔҝǔа
(You (God) are like the infinite,
You are known, [and this] without a doubt,
In existence, You are the source of everyone,
[And therefore] You are sweeter to me than any
source).
The ideological and thematic classification of
Roshani gazelles deserves special attention. Among
them, along with Sufi-philosophical ghazals, the first
examples of didactic-edifying, social, satirical, and
even biographical plans stand out. Of course, this
classification is conditional. In each specific case, the
Roshani gazelles combine elements of different
ideological and thematic orientations, but one of
them, as a rule, is the leading one.
Thus, the ghazal was intensively and on a large
scale transformed and “pushtunized” by the Roshan
poets, becoming one of the powerful tools for the
poetic embodiment of the teachings of Bayazd
Anǖārҝ. Its transformation was associated with the
formation and development of new ideological,
thematic, artistic and aesthetic features. In this regard,
we can talk about the formation of the Pashtun (or
otherwise Roshani) modification of the ghazal, which
was developed in the works of classical poets of
subsequent eras.
The Roshan poets also paid great attention to
another monorimic poetic genre - ұаǖҝде, which, as
is known, was widespread in ancient and medieval
Arabic, Persian-language and Turkic-language
poetry.
It has not yet been established precisely when the
first (non-folklore) examples of ұаҗҝды in Pashto
were created. Referring to “Hidden Treasure”, Prof.
A. Khabub claims that they were written in the XI-
XII centuries. As an argument, he cites two
arguments. The first of them is an elegy and was
composed by Shayүom Аsadom Sһrҝ in the 11th
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century when he was in captivity of Sulǚāna
Maңmuda Ҹaznavҝ on the occasion of the death of
Muңammada Sһrҝ, the ruler of Ҹһra. The second is
an ode written by Ǐkarandoya from Ҹһra (XII century)
and written by him in honour of the campaign of the
ruler of Ҹһra Shaүāb ad-Dҝna Muңammada Sāma
Shansbānҝ to India. Both “ұаҗҝды” have almost
completely preserved the basic compositional
elements traditionally inherent in both their elegiac
and odic varieties.
According to The Hidden Treasure, before the
Roshanians, there were only two ұаҖҝдыs in Pashtun
literature. No other materials and sources confirming
or refuting this assumption were found. Probably, this
genre was developed precisely in the work of Roshan
poets. They were the ancestors of the Pashtun
modification of ұаǖҝdi with its Sufi-philosophical,
religious, elegiac, and biographical varieties.
If we talk about the specific contribution of each
of them, then, first of all, we should mention Daulat
Lavāỵay, who wrote 22 stories with a total volume of
1076 beits. The largest of them consists of 143 bytes.
Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ is the author of 14 years. In the
Arzan divan, 1 ұаҗҝд was found, including 32
beytes; Viil Roshan owns one, consisting of 35 beits.
The sofa of Karkm-dada Roshani includes 9 ұаҗҝд
with a total volume of 295 beyts. In total, Roshan
poets own 47 ұаҗҝдs, including 2012 beyts. As for
‘Alҝ Muңammad Muүliǖa, there is no ұаҗҝд in his
divan. The poet’s poems, consisting of more than 20
beits each, which under certain conditions could be
classified as ұаҗҝдм, seem somewhat controversial.
However, in the manuscript of his diwan from the
British Museum, they are included among the
ghazals.
In the poems of Roshan poets, there are
completely no traditional components inherent in
classical poetry, in particular the internal
compositional structure, including a lyrical
introduction (naǖҝb), a special transition (gurizgākh),
praise (madң), and a conclusion. Some have elements
of praise but have completely different content. The
Roshanians could only address praise to God, the
prophet, and his companions, as well as some figures
of the Roshani movement and, above all, Bāyazҝdu
Аnǖārҝ. At the same time, in not a single one of their
ұаҗҝды, or indeed in all their work, is there a hint of
praise for a high-ranking person: a ruler, feudal lord,
or nobleman.
The ideological and thematic content of the
Roshani modification of ұаҗҝды is determined by
their religious-Koranic, Sufi, and social orientation.
At the same time, the dominant theme is vandat al-
wuzhd. The exceptions are the four ұaǖҝds of Daulat
Lavānay. One of them is an elegy and was written on
the occasion of the death of his friend and poet ‘Alҝ
Muhammad Muliǖa, whom he writes about with great
bitterness and sadness, praising him as a perfect
person. The second is a kind of hymn to Man as the
highest being, the “luminary” of the earth, whom
even the angels worship and who must be guided by
good intentions, do worthy deeds and despise earthly
goods and luxury. The other two ұаҗҝды are
dedicated to Bāyazҝdu Аnǖārҝ. One of them is
dedicated to the memory of Bāyazҝdu Аnǖārҝ. It
glorifies the holiness and ideals of this outstanding
spiritual leader, heir of the prophets, his deeds, and
writings. The second, of a purely biographical nature,
praises Bāyazҝdu Аnǖārҝ, describes his merits, the
exploits of the members of the Bayazdov family (his
sons and grandsons).
The genre of rubā‘ҝ (quatrains), which is very
widespread in Eastern poetry, also occupies a worthy
place in the poetry of the Roshanians. True, not all
Roshani authors turned to this genre. Thus, they are
not in the divan of Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ and the
collection of poems by Vasil Roshan. Rubā‘ҝ is also
not found in the London list of Arzānk’s divan,
although in his other lists, in particular, the
handwritten copy of his divan, stored in Peshawar,
almost 120 pages are occupied by rubā‘ҝ. A small
poetic treatise Arzānk, published in Kabul in 1975
and dedicated to the life of the prophet Munammad,
consists entirely of quatrains (there are 78 of them in
this collection), which indicates the poet’s great
interest in this genre. Quatrains were also found in the
divan of ‘Alҝ Mu ңammad Muүliǖa (123 in total), in
Daulat Laỵay (more than 110).
Undoubtedly, they relied on the traditions of
medieval Persian-language poetry, in which the
rubā‘ҝ genre was one of the leading ones. However,
one cannot ignore the influence of the Pashtun oral
poetic tradition, where such varieties of quatrains as
rubā‘ҝ, murabba (popularly called “tsaloridz”),
chārbaita and some others have long existed. This
influence was quite significant since the main part of
the Roshan quatrains was written precisely in the
traditions of the folk ruba‘ҝ. As an example, we can
cite the quatrains of Arzānҝ, ‘Alҝ Muhammad
Muүliǖa, and Daulat Lavāỵay, in the form of
shortened verse series-lines, rhyming according to the
scheme: aaba and characterized by accessibility and
simplicity of presentation. The theme of these
quatrains is not particularly original. These are all the
same motives that were sung in their ghazals and
ұаҗҝдах.
The quatrains of Roshan poets, as well as Persian
and Turkic poetry in general, are characterized by
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thematic cyclization. Several cycles can be
distinguished in Roshan poetry. Thus, almost half of
the quatrains of ‘Alҝ Munammad Muliǖa are devoted
to praising the power of God. Another cycle of his
quatrains is dedicated to the prophetic mission of
Munammad and his companions. These cycles, or
otherwise “chain” quatrains, are close in content to
the Arzānҝ quatrains, which recreate the lifeline of
the prophet Muhammad. They are also found in
Daulat Lavāỵay. True, they differ somewhat from the
previous ones both in content and purpose. So, if the
quatrains of 'Alҝ Muhammad Muүliǖa are created
exclusively within the framework of religious-
Koranic themes and almost do not touch upon the idea
of “vandat al-vujd”, then Daulat Lavānay dedicated
one of his cycles to the praise of the “successor of the
prophet” - Bayazҝd Anǖārҝ, in the other speaks of his
sincere devotion to him and his teaching. In
subsequent cycles, he plays on the well-known
Roshanian motifs about “oneness” in different
variations. He also has such rubā‘ҝ, which exist, as it
were, outside the cycles, but are also aimed at
popularizing Bayazdov’s teachings.
By resorting to the technique of cyclization and,
thereby, breaking the general theme into fragments,
the Roshanians manage to significantly increase the
emotional impact on their addressee. A chain of
quatrains connected by one theme created the effect
of a polytropic work consisting of monostrophic
quatrains.
Although ghazal, ұаҗҝа, and rubā‘ҝ were the
most common genres of Roshanian poetry,
nevertheless, one can talk about their preferences in
choosing the genre. The most active in genre
creativity was Daulat Laỵay. He was one of the first
to borrow from Persian-language poetry such forms
as maǒnavҝ and ұiǚ‘a and introduced them into
Pashtun poetry. In his divan of poems, we met three
long manavs and twenty-nine uiǚa. Although the
efforts of Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ in this direction were
insignificant, he, like Daulat Lavāỵai, for the first
time in Pashtun poetry composed muammas
(pentament) and munāǜara (dispute-dialogue), based
on the strophic form of tarkibbanda. One poem
written in the muammas genre was also discovered by
the poet Vāǖil Roshāнҝ.
Muүammas Murzā-үāna Anǖārҝ consists of nine
stanza-bands, each of which is completely
independent in content, and at the same time united
with others by the thought of the perishability of
earthly life. So, if in the first stanza the poet, in
accordance with tradition, praises the prophet
Muңammada, and in the last stanza pessimistically
talks about the frailty of life, then in the second stanza
he claims that “this world is a dovecote, and a person
is like a dove,” which flies and certainly flies away.
In the third stanza, he condemns money-grubbing and
asserts that “wealth is of no use,” for “in the end you
will leave this world.” Other verses of Muammas
sound in the same spirit, in which we talk about the
“oneness” of God and the world of phenomena as an
absolute truth. He speaks of the multiplicity of the
disintegrated “unity” and in this regard condemns the
ignorance of people. Very interesting in this regard is
the last stanza of the poem, which, with the exception
of the last line, is written in the manner of “pasta
verse” (mulamma‘), i.e., simultaneously in Farsi and
Pashto. Returning to his previous thought, the poet
recalls that this “certain moment of life is a temporary
gift”.
Contrary to the peculiarities of the genre,
Muүammas Murzā-үāna Anǖārҝ is not based on the
ghazal of any poet or his own. From his ghazals he
borrowed not form but thought. In selecting figurative
means close and understandable to the Afghan reader,
the poet showed great skill, maintaining strict
correspondence between the meaning and form of
presentation. To this we can add the fact that each
poetic line in terms of syntactic structure is simple
and concise. In terms of the simplicity of the poetic
structure and rhythm, muammas resembles the so-
called folk poems, consisting of five lines - pindziz.
This is what one of the stanza bands sounds like:
Лǝ ұийāмата на вēрēỹҝ, Че дале сǝм
вударēỹҝ,
Пǝ дунйā бǝ азāбēỹҝ, Ау āүир бǝ трē
тēрēỹҝ,
Цǝ ǖифат дǝ сҝму зар дǝй.
(He is not afraid of the Last Judgment, [striving
for wealth],
[Thinks] it will remain so in this world,
He will be tormented by [his] wealth,
And in the end he will leave [his] wealth,
Why then the dignity of silver and gold?).
Muүammas Vāǖil Roshānҝ is not distinguished
by any artistic or thematic innovations; he repeated in
it what had already been said in dozens of his ghazals.
As for the poem by Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ
“Conversation between a candle and a moth” ( ﺩ ﻊﻤﺷ
ﻭﺍ ﻨﻨﭘګ ﻪﻤﻟﺎﮑﻣ ), written in the form of tarkibband, it
should be noted that it has the character of a polemic
poem and consists of six stanzas. The first three
contain eight bytes, the fourth - seven, the fifth - ten,
and the sixth stanza consists of nine bytes. In general,
Murzā-үān Anǖārҝ adheres to the strophic formalities
of tarkibbanda, if we do not take into account the
uneven number of beits in the stanzas. The poem is
signed with the poet’s pseudonym.
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The theme of the relationship between God and
man, although in a slightly different version, is
touched upon in the maǒnavҝ of Daulat Lavāỵaya and
in his ұиǚ‘а.
Of the twenty-nine ұiǚ‘a of Daulat Lavāỵaya,
only one consists of seven beits, while the rest are
written in the form of quatrains with the rhyme
aa/va/ga. They are characterized by a philosophical
orientation and a propaganda, didactic, and
instructive character. They are not marked with
special aesthetic value if you do not take into account
the presence of rhymes, rhythmic stresses, and equal
verse lines in them. The three works of Daulat Lavāỵ
are not distinguished by their special artistic merits,
although he managed to preserve all the main formal
features of the genre.
As is known, on the basis of the rhyme maҒnavi
(type: aa, bb, вв, etc.), characterized by pairing,
classic epic works from the cycle of “Quintuples”
were created by Niǜāmҝ Ganjavҝ, Osrova Deulavҝ,
'Alҝshera Navāҝ, famous Sufi poems -didactic
content of Sanā'ҝ, Aǚǚāra, Rһmҝ or hundreds of plot
folklore and semi-folklore dastans and Uiǖǖa in
Pashto. Of course, the work of Daulat Lavāỵ cannot
be compared with these highly artistic creations of
Persian-speaking and Turkish-speaking poets.
Maǒnavҝ Daulat Lavāỵaya, contrary to the
established tradition, do not have plots of an epic
plan; therefore, such essential elements of
composition as plotting, development, and
denouement are missing. They feature the well-
known religious, philosophical, Sufi ideas of
Bayazҝd Anǖārҝ. So, for example, the poet’s largest
manav (it contains 264 bayts) is almost entirely
devoted to the interpretation of the essence and
omnipotence of God the creator, God the
omnipresent, God the all-encompassing, based on the
concept of “vandat al-wujd”. True, there are several
insertions from religious-Koranic mythology (for
example, the legend of Yusuf and his father, etc.).
However, these insertions are also subordinated to the
main idea of the work.
The volume of the second maǒnavҝ Daulat
Lavāỵay is 73 beytes. The first half of the work is
devoted to the Sufi interpretation of the theme of the
appearance and prophetic mission of Muhammad and
the praise of his companions and associates. Then the
poet proceeds to present one of the main elements of
the Sufi theory - “The Light of Munammad” (“Nuri
Munammad”), according to which the soul of the
prophet was the first creation that arose in the form of
a brightly luminous point. Subsequently, all other
chosen souls emanated from her.
The third maǒnavҝ (28 beits in total), like the
second, has a purely Sufi-religious character. It
describes an episode from the life of the prophet
Munammad, according to which he, using all his
prophetic powers and capabilities, defeated his
enemies.( Mirzoev, 1958- Nasirov,1972)
3 CONCLUSIONS
Thus, it was the Roshani poets at the turn of the XVI-
XVII centuries. For the first time in Pashtun poetry,
they borrowed, introduced, modified well-known
poetic forms and genres, and developed the features
of their poetics inherent in this literary tradition. This
contributed to their further development and
enrichment by the next generations of Pashtun
classics and, above all, by such outstanding poets as
Үushңālьүān Үaữak, ‘Аbdulьraңmān,
‘Аbdulьңamҝd, ‘Аbdulьұadirүān Үaữak, Kāzimүān
Shaydā, Pir Muңammad Kākar, Muңammad
Bangash, who made an invaluable contribution to the
development of the genres of Afghan poetry of the
XVII-XVIII centuries (Mannonov, 2001).
REFERENCES
Mirzoev, A. M. (1958). Rudaki and the development of the
ghazal in the 10th–15th centuries. Stalinabad. P. 25.
Mannonov, A. (1968). On the emergence of the ghazal
genre in Afghan literature. Journal "Social Sciences in
Uzbekistan", 11, 68.
Prigarina, N. I. (1978). Poetics of the works of Muhammad
Iqbal. Moscow: Science, 129.
Udam, H. K. (1968). Notes on the structure of the image in
the lyrics of Hafiz. Scientific Notes of Tartu University,
201, 278–283.
Reisner, M. L. (1980). The main stages of ghazal lyrics in
Farsi in the 10th–15th centuries: Author's abstract.
Diss. Cand. Philol. Sci. Moscow, 17.
Prigarina, N. I. (1999). Indian style and its place in Persian
literature (issues of poetics). Moscow, 136–149.
Nasirov, O. (1972). Ghazal in Uzbek literature. Tashkent:
Literature and Art Publishing House, 63-67.
Mannonov, A. (2001). History of folklore and classical
literature of Afghan peoples. Tashkent, 89-108.
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