Razm-o-bazm II: Elegant Gatherings Saturday April 9th, 2016, 10:30-3:30 Columbia University, Knox Hall, room 208 =========== 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 will be possible starting one month before the workshop: *REGISTRATION FORM* =========== Workshop schedule: 10:00-10:30 coffee 10:30-12:30: Reading and discussion   12:30-1:30: lunch 1:30-3:30: Reading and discussion   =========== Urdu romances are often said to be about razm-o-bazm, 'warfare and elegant gatherings'. Last year (2015) we read martial poetry from several South Asian traditions; this year we will look comparatively at some poetry about elegant gatherings.  SELECTED MATERIALS FOR THE WORKSHOP Packets will be available in hard-copy form at the workshop itself, and in pdf form right here: *WORKSHOP PACKET*  (NOTE: our packets will be double-sided; if you prefer single-sided, you might want to print one out for yourself) GENERAL STUDY MATERIALS =="Bazm and razm" at the *Metropolitan Museum of Art* ==Selections from Harivansh Rai Bachchan's "Madhushala" (1935): *Hindi text*; *English translation (with intro. essays)*; *Urdu transliteration*; *Bachchan's own thoughts about it* ==Arrangements for a simple mushairah among friends, as described by Muhammad Hadi Rusva, 1899; text and translation: *Umrao Jan Ada* ==Preparations for an elaborate late-Mughal mushairah, as imagined by Mirza Farhatullah Beg, c.1928: *Urdu text* (Dehli ki Akhri Shama', Delhi: Urdu Academy, 1986); *English translation* by Akhtar Qamber (The Last Mushairah of Delhi, Delhi: Orient Longman, 1979) ==The *"Rubaiyat"* of *Omar Khayyam* (1048-1131), as transcreated into an extraordinarily popular English poem (c.1859-72) by *Edward Fitzgerald* ==Ghalib's jeu d'esprit at a friendly gathering in Calcutta in 1826: *an ode to a betel-nut* (described in a letter from 1858); *full Urdu text from the divan*; *Hali's account of the episode* (1897) ==Ghalib's famous verse-set that warns against the charms of elegant gatherings: *G{169,6-12}* (after 1826); and a little extra touch of paranoia: *G{97,5}* (1847) ==An excerpt from the "Pratap Prakash" by Krishnadatt Kavi (c.1788-1803): *text and translation* =="Courtly and Religious Communities as Centres of Literary Activity in Eighteenth-Century India, by *Imre Bangha, 2007* (cf. pp. 313-14) ==Mir's cautionary meditation on the allure of elegant gatherings (before 1751): *M{239,7-11}* =========== Questions or problems: <fp7@columbia.edu> =========== ~~ *list of other workshop topics* ~~ *fwp's main page* ~~