TO those interested in poetry, Muharram serves as an annual reminder of the existence in our poetic tradition of a form of poetry we tend to forget in the hubbub of ghazal and modern verse. Every year during Muharram, there is a revival of the genre known as marsiya. The sozkhwans, who are seen in every majlis engaged in sozkhwani, revive our emotional involvement in classical marsiya as represented by Anis and Dabeer. Thanks to the electronic media, the modern marsiya writers have the opportunity of making an annual re-appearance and have access to a larger audience.
The approach of the critics to this form is a bit intriguing. In case of other branches of poetry they take pains to go through the diwans of all sorts of poets, major and minor, and draw their own conclusions. But in case of the marsiya, the situation is slightly different. At present, there seems to be a consensus on the point that Anis is the best product offered by the marsiya tradition of Urdu. This consensus has absolved an individual critic from the responsibility of going through the long drawn out marsiyas of major and minor poets and draw his own conclusions. So we will hardly find a critical study of the marsiya which may help us to know the distinctive characteristics of the marsiya writers coming at the heels of Anis and Dabeer. Frankly speaking, any marsiya-writer other than Anis hardly matters for our critics in general.
So the annual revival of the classical marsiya is, to a great extent, the annual revival of Anis. This year one more factor, that of two hundred years of his birth anniversary has immensely added to this revival. Just before Muharram a number of anniversary functions were organized in different cities of Pakistan. The organizers also managed to bring out a few publications on this occasion. Mohammadi Education and Publication of Karachi brought out a special issue of their Risai Adab. It is a stupendous volume spread over about twelve hundred pages with a large number of critical articles on Anis written by distinguished critics in different times.
Dr Syed Zaki Abdi, a researcher on Anis, managed to bring out from Canada a big volume comprizing his research on one selected marsiya Jab qata ki musafat-i-shab aftab ne.
The inclusion of the complete English translation of this marsiya by David Matthews and the incomplete Arabic translation by Maulana Ali Naqi has added to the value of this volume. It has appeared under the title, Tajzia-i-Yadgar-i-Anis.
And we have one critical study of Anis by Mashkoor Husain Yad published by Classeek, Lahore, under the title Anis ki Shairana Basirat. Mashkoor Husain Yad is a critic whose pen knows no restraint. He writes profusely and in succession. When he brings out a book, be sure that it will soon be followed by the next one, which may be succeeded by a third one thus providing him with a chance to make a hat-trick in the field of criticism. While writing on Ghalib, he went further than a hat-trick. Volumes comprizing his critical analyses of Ghalib went on appearing successively for a number of years. Then he turned to Iqbal. But this time, he succeeded in restraining himself. Soon after presenting one volume on Iqbal, he turned to Anis and he came out with a volume titled Mutala-i-Anis ke Nazuk Marahil.
The present one published under the title, Anis ki Shairana Basirat is the second volume on the poet from him. It may, as he hopes, be followed soon by a third one.
Mashkoor has been a teacher of Urdu. With his teaching experience, he has developed a method of explaining couplets in an easy way. While reading the present volume, I felt like sitting in his classroom and wondered at his simple way of explaining Anis. But time and again, he crosses the threshold of the classroom and says things a student least expects from his teacher. He has rightly remarked that in the Anisian marsiya, religious faith and poetry have intermingled in a way that it is well-nigh impossible to distinguish one from the other. “Religious faith in Anis,” says he, “has been transformed into art.”
He is right. This has happened with those great poets and artist, who carried with them a religious experience. In their hands it transformed into a vision, which, going beyond the circle of the faithful gained universal appeal. In the Anisian marsiya, too, we see this kind of transformation which helps it to cross the threshold of the Imambargah and gains an appeal for all sensitive people no mater whether they share the religious beliefs of the poet or not.
While discussing the Salaams of Anis, Mashkoor has discovered in him a ghazal writer. He is not far from the truth in this perception of his. With his fine sense of taghazzul, Anis has elevated the genre of salaam to the level of the ghazal. To be more explicit, this form in his hands does not remain confined to the expression of devotional feelings alone. A deep sense of life and death in its universal context finds expression here in a finely evolved poetic idiom peculiar to the ghazal.
I have with me one more book published on this occasion — The Faith of the Imams by S Irtiza Husain. But here I am concerned with only how the tragedy of Karbala found its expression in our literature. So only one article from this collection could attract any attention where he says:
“Soz could not have been invented in any other place except Oudh..... had the kingdom of Oudh not been established in the nineteenth century and Indo-Muslim culture not evolved to the point it had by the time, soz would probably not have seen the light of day.”
Was it really so? The statement needs to be elaborated.
TO those interested in poetry, Muharram serves as an annual reminder of the existence in our poetic tradition of a form of poetry we tend to forget in the hubbub of ghazal and modern verse. Every year during Muharram, there is a revival of the genre known as marsiya. The sozkhwans, who are seen in every majlis engaged in sozkhwani, revive our emotional involvement in classical marsiya as represented by Anis and Dabeer. Thanks to the electronic media, the modern marsiya writers have the opportunity of making an annual re-appearance and have access to a larger audience.
