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    My favorite artworks from European Museums

    My favorite artworks from European Museums

    Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

    Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

    Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

    Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

    Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

    Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

    Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

    Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

    The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

    The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

    Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

    St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

    St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

    The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

    The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

    The Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest

    St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

    St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

    The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

    The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

    Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

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    • Travel
      My favorite artworks from European Museums

      My favorite artworks from European Museums

      Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

      Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

      Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

      Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

      Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

      Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

      The Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest

      St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

      St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

      The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

      The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

      Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

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      The bard who wrote elegies – The Hindu

      inOur Cultural Heritage, Sher o Sukhan
      0

      Umr guzri hai isi dasht ki sayyahi main
      Paanchvi pusht hai Shabbir ki maddahi main
      I’ve spent a lifetime traversing this desert with veneration
      In Shabbir’s service I am the fifth generation
      Mir Anees

      I grew up hearing Mir Anees’ marsiyas and on a recent visit to Lucknow, I decided to read the fatiha on his grave. The rickshaw took me into a narrow alley near Lucknow’s Akbari Darwaza. From there I negotiated my way through the dirt and slush that cover most alleys in old areas of India. I reached what was once a grand doorway and saw that some steps led to a locked iron grill. After enquiry a family nearby said the keys were with a family member of Mir Anees. He kindly led me to his house through some more narrow alleys and a family member accompanied us back.
      The grave building was clean though the grounds were overgrown.

      Mir Babar Ali Anis was born in Faizabad in 1803 to Mir Khaleeq a marsiya writer. As was normal in those days, he received a comprehensive education which included Arabic and Persian literature, horse riding, fencing etc. Spending his childhood in Ayodhya meant that he was steeped in Awadhi culture and Indian traditions.
      With 22 poets in his family it was but natural that by the time he was 13 he was writing ghazals and later 6 line marsiyas. Initially his father was his ustad and he suggested that the young Anis concentrate on marsiya. After shifting to Lucknow he came under the tutelage of the famous Lucknow poet, Imam Baksh Nasikh.
      The word Marsiya is derived from the Arabic word Risa, meaning a great tragedy or lamentation for a departed soul. It is an elegy, a poem of mourning which has now come to be specifically associated with the tragedy of Karbala and to describe the battle fought on the plains of Karbala in Iraq by Hazarat Imam Husain and his supporters against the army of Yazid.
      On 10th of October 680 A.D. / 10th of Muharram 60 A.H., the first month of the Islamic calendar, Hussain was martyred in battle alongside all the male members of his family, except one son who was too ill to fight. Considering it a betrayal the basic tenets of Islam , and of all that his grandfather, the Prophet, pbuh , stood for, Imam Hussain had refused to accept Yazid’s suzerainty.
      Yazid, the second Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty is widely accepted by both Shias and Sunnis as being amoral, debauched and a tyrant. Imam Hussain refused to accept his religious suzeranity over the Muslims and preferred to leave Medina for Kufa in Iraq where some friends had invited him, in order to avoid bloodshed. Those friends eventually buckled down under Yezid’s oppression. Hussain had already travelled a distance when he came to know of it. He was confronted by Yezid’s considerable army on the dusty plains of Karbala and forced to camp there. Hussain was martyred in battle alongside all the male members of his family, except one son who was too ill to fight.
      This act of supreme sacrifice, acceptance of certain matyrdom of self and family , with knowledge of untold and intense suffering awaiting the surviving women and children of his family yet steadfast refusal to compromise the principles of his grandfather, became the incomparable metaphor for truth and integrity.
      Marsiyago [marsiya writers] pay tribute to this martyrdom. This form of poetic genre flourished in Awadh under the Persian origin Shia nawabs till it reached a literary zenith. Today one cannot conceive of the observance of Muharram without a marsiya.
      Marsiya generally consists of six-line units, with a rhyming quatrain, and a couplet on a different rhyme.
      It is characterized by six-line verses in an AA, AA and BB rhyme scheme. They are traditionally either recited by Marsiya-Khwans or sung by a Marsiya-Soz .

      Lucknow had several marsiyagos but none as famous and sublime as Mir Anees who combined the Arabic classical poetic traditions with the local Awadhi culture. He created tragic scenes of loss and desolation of the women after the martyrdom of Imam Hussain and the men; vivid battle scenes and made each heroic character come live before our eyes.
      Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, famous Urdu critic and scholar writes, “Mir Anees’ marsiyas are the best pre-modern model in Urdu of narrative-historical, narrative-lyrical and oral-dramatic poetry.”
      Mir Anees wrote over 213 marsiyas and other verses commemorating Imam Hussain’s martyrdom. He was also a master in the art of writing rubayi or quatrain. He could have been as famous as Ghalib had he written ghazals instead of a specific genre.
      He died in 1874 at the age of 72 and was buried in a land he had bought earlier as his family graveyard.

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      Rana Safvi

      Come, explore and fall in love the Beauties of Delhi (Dilli ki Ranaiya’n) and the World with me, Rana Safvi

      I have a masters in medieval history from the prestigious Centre for Advanced Studies, Dept. of History, AMU. A firm believer in our Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb, I am passionate about gaining and sharing knowledge and these days I am doing it via the social media platform.

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      © 2018 Rana Safvi - A blog Exploring Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb of India, website handcrafted by Abu Sufiyan.