In poetry, the ghazal (Persian: غزل; Turkish gazel) is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain. Each line must share the same meter. Etymologically, the word literally refers to "the mortal cry of a gazelle". The animal is caled Ghizaal, from which the English word gazelles stems, or Kastori haran (where haran refers to deer) in Urdu. Ghazals are traditionally expressions of love, separation and loneliness, for which the gazelle is an appropriate image. A ghazal can thus be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 10th century Persian verse. It is derived from the Persian qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are more stringent than those of most poetic forms traditionally written in English. In its style and content it is a genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central theme of love and separation. It is considered by many to be one of the principal poetic forms the Persian civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world. The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century under the influence of the new Islamic Sultanate courts and Sufi mystics. Exotic to the region, as is indicated by the very sounds of the name itself when properly pronounced as Ä¡azal, with its very un-Indian initial rolled g. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Urdu poetry, today, it has influenced the poetry of many languages. Ghazals were written by the Persian mystics and poets Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (13th century) and Hafez (14th century), the Turkish poet Fuzuli (16th century), as well as Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), who both wrote Ghazals in Persian and Urdu. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany in the 19th century, and the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835). The Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real ghazals in English." In some modernized ghazals the poet's name is hidden somewhere in the last verse, usually between the front and end of a word.

An ancient erotic Persian form of verse or poetry.

The ghazal, many will tell you, is an ancient Persian form of verse. The OED notes that it is generally erotic in nature, limited in the number of stanzas, and uses a recurring rhyme. The western impression, dating back to the last century and earlier, is that ghazals celebrate love and wine, but it is interesting to discover that ghazals can be found today in modern pop music. The Indo-British singer known as Najma for instance, uses a number of ghazals (in Hindi if my memory is correct) as the lyrics of her songs. They are quite haunting, long soft syllables with tabla and saxophone solos, and gist of the words amounts to no more than the usual hyperbole of love song lyrics. No Bacchanalia. http://www.ahapoetry.com/GHAZAL.HTM

"A ghazal is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal_%28disambiguation%29 Talat Mahmood sings a song of Muhammad Rafi - Version Audio (traditional ghazal) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zslcMFPf1k Idea Star Singer 2007 9th Rnd Najim Arshad Ghazal Song (modern ghazal) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mynXILSblso Ye daulat bhi le lo - Jagjit Singh (great ghazal singer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAO5J6QwCwA "The Ghazal King Jagjit Singh is undoubtedly one of the most well known Ghazal Singer in the world today. Jagjit Singh is one of the foremost Ghazal singers and Chitra Singh had been a perfect foil for him till the cruel hands of fate snatched away their teenage son Vivek. Jagjit Singh rose above his grief by immersing himself into music while Chitra Singh retired into seclusion after a memorial album titled 'Someone Somewhere'." Source: http://ghazals.folkmusicindia.com/ "The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject: Love. And not any kind of love, but specifically, an illicit, and unattainable love. The subcontinental ghazals have an influence of Islamic Mysticism and the subject of love can usually be interpreted for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. The love is always viewed as something that will complete the being, and if attained will ascend the ranks of wisdom, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazals' love does not have an explicit element of sexual desires in it, and hence the love is spiritual. Consequently, ghazals are not to be confused with poetry of seduction." "It is not possible to get a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being familiar with some concepts of Sufism. All the major historical ghazal poets were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz), or were sympathizers of Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God, or the poet's spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry. Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi), others are about "metaphorical love" (ishq-e-majazi), but most of them can be interpreted in either context." SOurce and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal