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Genre

Shahr Ashob

World Traditional Verse Forms

The Shahr Ashob is a genre that became prominent in Urdu poetry in South Asia, with roots in classical Persian and Urdu poetic lamentation. It has early medieval origins in the twelfth century or earlier, but came into wide use among poets from the late Mughal Empire through the post-Mughal era of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Scholars regard ashob as an important historical genre in Persian, Urdu and Turkish literature, used by writers to express anguish and sorrow over political and social upheaval.

Facts
Place of Origin
South Asia 1
Notable Example
A shahr ashob by Mir Taqi Mir beginning My friends all seemed to death, near 1
Defining Trait
Five to six stanzas with the first four lines rhymed together 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Shahr Ashob
  • Introduction, first sentence
    is a genre that becomes prominent in Urdu poetry in South Asia with its roots in classical Persian and Urdu poetic lamentations.
  • Poems written in ashobs section
    My friends all seemed to death, near
  • Description paragraph on structure
    It consists of five to six stanzas normally written in rhymed verse for the first four lines. The first line rhymes with the second, third and fourth.
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