Amir Khusrau

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Amir Khusrau


Born 1253 in Patiali (now Uttar Pradesh); died 1325 in Delhi. Indian poet, scholar, and musician. Turkish by descent; wrote in Persian, Urdu, and Hindi; popular also among the Persians and Tadzhiks. Court poet of India.

Amir Khusrau’s intimacy with the Sufi dervish order Chishti is reflected in his work: in his poetry he eulogized Nizamaddina Aulia, the head of the order, calling him a spiritual mentor. Amir Khusrau left many works of poetry, literary criticism, and history. His lyrics were collected in five divans: The Gift of Youth (written 1272), The Middle of Life (1284), The Plenitude of Perfection (1293), The Elected Remainder (1316), and The Summit of Perfection (1325). Romantic poems are prominent among his work—an example is Dawalrani Khizrkhan, based on themes from court life. He created a five-part work on the model and themes of the poems of Nizami: The Ascent of the Luminaries (1298), Shirin and Khosrov (1298), Medjun and Leila (1298), The Mirror of Iskander (1299), and Eight Heavenly Gardens (1301). Amir Khusrau made use of Indian folk tales; however, he made many vital modifications in their plots. Anthologies of poems, riddles, and sayings attributed to Amir Khusrau and written in Hindi have survived. Kkhalibari, a dictionary of synonyms containing Arabic, Persian, and Hindi words, has also been attributed to him. He composed many tesnifs (folk romances) in Urdu, which are performed by Indian singers.


Mesnevi khasht bekhesht. Aligarh, 1336 A.H. (A.D. 1957).


Storey, C. A. Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, section 2, fasc. 3. London, 1939.
Muhammad Wahid Mirza. The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau. Calcutta, 1935.
Arberry, A. J. Classical Persian Literature. London, [1958].
References in periodicals archive ?
From Amir Khusrau to Dev Anand, the amusing literary giant describes his muse as effortlessly as one talks about a next- door neighbour.
Even as it celebrates the multifaceted genius of Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) as versatile poet, master of Persian language and verse forms, scholar, musician and composer, and mystic, it aims to promote research on the impress left by this iconic figure on Indo-Islamic art and culture, more so in "a historical and contemporary cultural perspective".
From Indian folk bhajans to poetry of Amir Khusrau, Buddhists chants to African and African-American spirituals and contemporary blues and jazz, Mr Hazra's concerts meld diverse styles into an organic whole.
a versified glossary of Persian, Arabic, and Hindawi words and phrases attributed to Amir Khusrau, but most probably written in 1622 in Gwalior by ?
It is said that tarana was popularised by Amir Khusrau, a great poet, musicologist who lived in the 14th century.
The festival is an invaluable addition to the city's cultural calendar, and commemorates the death of famous Sufi poet Amir Khusrau.
This copy of the Khamsa by the poet Amir Khusrau, produced in Lahore for the Mughal emperor Akbar in the late 1590s, really does catch one's breath with its beauty.
In Delhi, Amir Khusrau, a court poet, was buried next to Ni4rn al-Din, his master, but so was the Mughal princess, Jahanark who considered herself loyal to N4arn al-Din, just as her grandfather, the Emperor Akbar, had been loyal to the tomb of Mucin al-Din in Ajmer.
If chick- lit writers Ira Trivedi, Madhuri Banerjee and Ismita Tandon brought the house down with their views on love and sex, translators Paul Losensky and Sunil Sharma took us to the age of the 13th- century poet Amir Khusrau, through the anthology, In The Bazaar of Love .
The qawwalis were interspersed with poems by Kabir Das, Amir Khusrau and Jalaluddin Rumi.