Who was Ghalib?

Saturday April 12, 2014, 10:30-3:30
Columbia University, Knox Hall, room 208

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The workshop is sponsored by the South Asia Institute and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University. It is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required:
*REGISTRATION FORM*
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Workshop schedule:
10:00-10:30 coffee
10:30-12:30: Ghalib's Urdu ghazal in context 
12:30-1:30: lunch
1:30-3:30: Ghalib's Persian ghazal--what should its context be?
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SELECTED MATERIALS FOR THE WORKSHOP
Who was Ghalib? In his own mind, a very great Persian poet who also dabbled in Urdu (and was almost offhandedy great at that too). One of the few shared radifs between Ghalib's Urdu and Persian ghazals is "candle," and it's a good, widely used, discussable mazmun too. Ghalib has only one Urdu ghazal with this refrain: *ghazal 75 (1816)*, which has received its due share of commentary: G{75}. From the Urdu world, here are refrain-sharing "candle" ghazals by Mir (1722-1810): *examples by Mir*, of which the best one has received commentary: M{1646}. Here are *two examples from Sauda* (Mir's contemporary, 1706?-81); and *two examples from Momin* (Ghalib's contemporary, 1800-52).
And for a clear comparison, here's Ghalib's one Persian ghazal with this radif: *Persian ghazal 225 (1837)*.

Packets will be available in hard-copy form at the workshop itself, and in pdf form here (though ours at the workshop may be of better quality):
*WORKSHOP PACKET*

GENERAL STUDY MATERIALS

*"A DESERTFUL OF ROSES"*

*some of the great traditional anecdotes*

*on his own appearance, and his own perversity (c. late 1840's)*

*on his scorn for all dependence and borrowing*

*on his supposed dissatisfaction with the ghazal form (1847)*

*on his grief at the death of 'Arif (1852)*

*on his fury at having other poets' verses attributed to him (1853)*

*his account of the events of 1857*

*on his supposed fair cruel Domni (letters from 1860)*

*on his supposed Persian tutor Abdus Samad (1860's)*

*on his supposed rejection of his early Urdu ghazals (c.1866)*

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~~ *list of other workshop topics* ~~ *fwp's main page* ~~