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The rejection of some poets and later their revival has in general been an inexplicable phenomenon in the history of poetry.
In certain cases one may offer some plausible explanation for it. But generally one wonders why a poet is consigned to the dustbin of history and why after long years he attracts the attention of researchers and at their hands regains his lost reputation.
At least in the case of Mirza Dabeer we can offer an explanation and say that it was because of Maulana Shibli's comparative study of Anees and Dabeer published in 1906 that poor Mirza Dabeer suffered a setback.
Of course, even after the publication of Shibli's views, thanks to the soz khwans and marsiya khawans, Dabeer remained popular in the circles of the mourners. But in the world of literature Maulana Shibli's harsh judgment went unchallenged.
The poet speedily fell into oblivion and remained so for more than half a century. It was only in 1975 after the death centenary of Mir Anees a few literary journals cared to remember his 100th year of death and brought out special editions paying homage to this great master of Urdu marsiya.
That may be seen as the beginning of an attempt on the part of researchers and critics to get rid of the influence of Shibli's dismissive verdict about Dabeer.
Prof Karrar Husain, in his article published in Mah-i-Naus Dabeer Number (Sept/Oct 1975) emphasised the need to revise our attitude towards Dabeer. We should, he said, go back to him and read his works anew with care.
This statement was indicative of a changing attitude towards Dabeer. And as the century came to a close we saw a newly emerged scholar engaged in digging up the lost writings of Dabeer.
He was Dr Syed Taghi Abedi, who, after doing some research work on marsiya writers in general, gradually devoted himself to researching Dabeer alone. His painstaking effort slowly and gradually started to bear fruit.
He was able to dig out enough material, which he carefully sorted out and compiled in separate volumes. The latest is the seventh volume published by Shahid Publications, New Delhi, under the title Rubaiyat Dabeer.
It is perhaps for the first time that we have such a big volume of Urdu rubaiyat which is of 612 pages.
In his introductory article Dr Abedi has talked about this short form of poetry providing us precious information about its origin, its technicalities and its favourite themes in the light of his research.
This introductory article is preceded by a foreword by Allama Aqeel-ul-Gharvi, who is of the opinion that compared to Anees, Mirza Dabeer is more prolific and appears better placed in the field of rubai.
Dr Abedi has carefully compiled these rubaiyat, classifying them in accordance with the themes they deal with. As enumerated by him, the total number of rubaiyat he has been able to collect and present in this volume is 1323, of which 40 have been written in Persian.
According to Abedi's research a poet known as Shah Ghamgeen is credited with writing 1,800 rubaiyat, the largest number written by any poet in Urdu. Dabeer is second only to him.
In fact, the rubai has not been very popular in Urdu. The reason, as explained by Dr Abedi, is that it is a difficult form of poetic expression and is a challenge to the poetic capability of a poet. He has to say all what he intends to say in just four lines.
The fourth is the decisive line. It comes as a test for the poet, who has to prove in one line that he has
something extraordinarily precious to say.
It should come as a final word of wisdom. And only a few poets have been able to succeed in this regard.
Persian poetic tradition has in its fold poets who have come to be acknowledged as the most accomplished writers of rubai. Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, when translated, or rather recreated in English by Fitzgerald, won international fame.
In Urdu, of all the poets, the two marsiya writers Anees and Dabeer have come out as the two most accomplished rubai writers.
