Bidil

Abd al-Qadir Bidil ( Persian عبدالقادر بيدل 'Abd al-Qādir-i Bīdil ; * 1645 in Patna ; † 1721 in Delhi ) was a Persian-speaking poet from India who is known as a master of the Indian style .

Surname

The poet's full name is Persian ابوالمعانی میرزا عبدالقادر بن عبدالخالق ارلاس, DMG Abū'l-Ma'ānī Mīrzā 'Abd al-Qādir b. ʿAbd al-Ḫāliq-i Arlās .

His Laqab Bidil means “[the one] without a heart” in Persian; This means above all in the sense of Islamic mysticism that his heart is no longer secure in himself, but in God. The epithet is sometimes also transcribed into German as Bedil or Bidel . These different but irrelevant pronunciations of the vowels result from their different weighting in the individual dialects of Persian.

Due to his long service in the city of Delhi , his name is usually also taken from the Nisba "of Delhi" ( Arabic - Persian دهلوى Dihlawī) added, even if he was not originally from Delhi.

Life

Bidil was born in Patna into the Arlas clan, who were of Chaghata origin. His mother tongue was Bengali , but he was also familiar with the predecessor language of today's Urdu ( Persian ريخته, DMG Rīḫta ), Sanskrit and Chaghataic (then known as Türkī , "Turkish"). He learned Persian and Arabic in elementary school. After the death of his parents, he was taken care of by his uncle Mirza Qalandar, who devoted himself to poetry and was known to some of the most famous Sufis of his time. These Sufi friends had a lasting impact on the boy's personality and encouraged his poetic talent. So he wrote his first poem at the age of ten. After that, he began studying the classical Persian poets, thus perfecting his own poetic skills. In addition, he came into contact with Sufism at that time and decided on its spiritual path, but without becoming a member of a Sufi order himself .

In his poetry, Bidil initially orientated himself on the language of the masters of the Iranian highlands until, after moving to Delhi in 1664, he increasingly oriented himself towards the Persian style, as it was predominant in India. He also served in the army of the Mughal Prince Muhammad Azam ( DMG A'ẓam ), but quit his service because he refused to write praise poems ( Arabic qaṣīda ) on the prince. Nevertheless, he kept on friendly contact with some high-ranking personalities at his court.

Bidil toured large parts of India and met many people of different religious convictions, including many Hindus , some of whom became his disciples, which confirms his great tolerance of people of other beliefs. He was also so familiar with Hindu philosophy that he was even said to be able to recite the Mahabharata by heart. But there is no written evidence of this.

Bidil died in Delhi, where his tomb was the destination of annual pilgrimages for a long period of time until it was largely destroyed by desecration and looting in the course of the 18th century as a result of the raids by the Nadir Shah , the Marathas and the Afghans . The current tomb was only recently made. It is located in Bagh-e-Bedil (= "Garden of Bidil") diagonally across from the Pragati Maidan and the Purana Qila next to the National Sports Club of India in the Mathura Road of Delhi.

Meaning and effect

Bidil, who decisively shaped the Indian style of Persian poetry, adapted the classical Persian and Indo-Persian poetry to the needs of his time. The most varied directions of Indo-Persian poetry are represented in his work, and his poetic work testifies to the relentless endeavor to understand the riddle of existence. This endeavor led him to a universal thinking: not only human, but also other forms of existence are on the way of a ceaseless movement upwards. This even applies to the stops along the way. In addition, a kind of primordial existentialism plays a role in his poetic work, so that some literary scholars have already described him as the predecessor of French existentialism. Perhaps one of the reasons for this assumption is that he was concerned with the basic problems of human existence and that his poetic skills were aimed at discovering the truth by looking inward. Also typical of his mystically oriented attitude was his forward-looking view of life itself, which also included a fundamental skepticism in the philosophical sense. In this regard, his work had a profound influence on modern poets such as Muhammad Iqbal . In addition, the old themes of the Sufis, especially Ibn Arabi , about the origin of man, the creation of the world and the relationship between God, the universe and man received new impetus. Like Ibn Arabi before, he looks at the atmosphere, "Breath of the Merciful" ( Persian نفس رحمانى, DMG Nafas-i raḥmānī ), as substantial for the world and mind. Everything else, such as minerals, plants and animals, on the other hand, is a work of nature, originated from a single word of that "breath of the merciful".

As early as the end of the 18th century, it was part of everyday poetry in Transoxania to write poetry and prose in the style of Bidil. His works were taught in elementary school, while many of his poems entered popular poetry and were even sung by Koran reciters. This shows how the influence of his work on Indo-Persian, Afghan , Tajik , but also Urdu literature had increased over time and found a noticeable echo with every new generation of poets in Central Asia. At least until the early 20th century, his model was unchallenged.

In Afghanistan there are always recurring "bidil readings" ( Persian بيدل خوانى, DMG Bīdil-ḫ ^w ānī ) called meetings with recitations from the poetic work, but also from philosophical texts of the Bīdil. In addition, he played a major role in the shaping of Urdu poetry by applying the Indian style of Persian to this language.

The formal language of the Indian style , represented in particular by Bidil, is characterized by symmetry and rationalism based on precisely defined norms of experience and feeling. Emotions and thoughts are treated mathematically, as it were, in that emotional aspects can be added, subtracted, multiplied and divided into infinitely small fractions in the form of images of meaning such as numbers. The result is a complex brevity in expression, which is characteristic of this style.

In the course of the 18th century, the spirit and form of the Indian style played a major role in shaping Urdu literature, of which Muhammad Iqbal, who wrote in Persian and Urdu, was one of the modern representatives . Because of all this and the connection between Sufitum and the highest mastery of Persian poetry, Bidil is counted among the central figures of the Mughal period in literary studies.

reception

Bidil is read and worshiped today mainly in Afghanistan and Tajikistan . In the 1970s, Bidil was referred to as a “poet with the Indian style” at Iranian universities and almost a dissident because of his special allegories, exaggeration, complex texts, ambiguities and paradoxes of his literary statements. Since his philosophically oriented literary style appears rather complex from today's perspective, it was hardly recognized in Iran for a long period of time.

Despite the complicated abstract terminology of his imagery as well as his exaggerations and understatements, Bidil is of great importance in Afghanistan, as the dialect of the Persian (Darī) spoken there largely matches the pronunciation and vocabulary spoken in India, whereas that spoken in Iran Persian is somewhat different. Bidil is especially popular with Afghan youth who know Indian songs or Ghazal poems with Indian meter from Afghan music.

plant

Ghazels

( Arabic - Persian غزليات, DMG Ġazalīyāt )

The imagery already recognizable in the poem form Ghaselen in his predecessor poets, which symbolizes the “veil” of the world from the splendor of God in its symbolism and metaphor, reaches its climax in the Ghaselen des Bidil. In their complex, spiritual expressiveness, they can hardly be grasped without knowledge of their mystical background.

Poems of praise, elegies

( Arabic - Persian قصائد, DMG Qaṣā'id )

The relatively few praise poems that have come down to us from Bidil testify more to his gratitude than to any addiction to recognition. In his great praise poem for the Prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, he imitated the style of the Chaqani of Shirvan (around 1121–1190).

Two-line

( Arabic - Persian مثنوى, DMG Mas̱nawī )

Bidil wrote four works in two-line form:

"The immeasurable cosmos"

( Persian محيط اعظم, DMG Muḥīṭ-ia'ẓam , 1667)

In several thousand double verses in eight chapters, he described the creation of the cosmos. In doing so, he followed Ibn ¡Arab∆'s view of the “ unity of existence ”.

"The Talisman of Confusion"

( Persian طلسم حيرت, DMG Ṭilism-i ḥayrat , 1669)

In the talisman of confusion (or: ... against confusion ) Bidil dealt with the nature and attributes of God, the plan of creation and the physical and spiritual existence of man. As with the Parliament of the Birds of Attar , Bidil also addressed the conflicting relationship between soul and body, explaining in detail the various forces that serve the soul, as well as the cause of suffering and its possible alleviation.

"The mountain of [God's] knowledge"

( Persian طور معرفت, DMG Ṭūr-i ma'rifat , 1667/68)

In 1,100 double verses he drew the picture of the Bairat Mountains, where he stayed for a while.

"Gnosis" or "Mysticism"

( Arabic - Persian عرفان, DMG 'Irfān , 1712)

This, the largest of his two-line series, encompasses topics with a mystical and philosophical content, including above all the penetration of the already existing soul into the depths of the material world, which ultimately leads to the birth of man. He also referred to certain ideas, such as the transmigration of souls in Hinduism (Arabic. Tanāsuḫ ; Sanskr. Samsara ). This work thus forms the core of Bidil's multi-layered worldview and is one of the most thought-out mystical poems in Persian literature.

Prose works

Bidil wrote his autobiography "The Four Elements" ( Persian چهار عنصر, DMG Čahār 'unṣur ) between 1680 and 1694 in the form of rhyming prose, in the ghazeles, quatrains ( Arabic - Persian رباعيات, DMG Rubā'īyāt ), two-line ( Arabic - Persian مثنوى, DMG Mas̱nawī ) and short poems ( Arabic - Persian قطعه, DMG Qiṭ'a ) are interspersed. As the title suggests, the work consists of four chapters assigned to the elements air, water, fire and earth. His biography contains information about his childhood, his religious experiences, his travels as well as his mystical and philosophical points of view, such as about the nature of the soul, about the meaning of dreams and about the benefits of speech and silence.

Expressions of opinion

( Arabic - Persian نكات, DMG Nikāt )

Here Bidil dealt in the form of quatrains, short poems, ghazeles, two- and five-liners ( Arabic - Persian مخمس, DMG Muḫammas ) mainly with topics of philosophy and mysticism, although some poems with a social reference are also quite satirical.

Letters

( Arabic - Persian رقعات, DMG Ruqa'āt )

This concerns the correspondence with Nawab Shukrullah Khan and other Mughal dignitaries, with his teacher 'Abd al-'Azīz' Izzat and with his students, including Nizam Asaf Jah I , the founder of the ruling house of the Asaf-Jahi in Hyderabad .

Web links

• Bīdil-i Dihlawī
• Čahār 'unṣur

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Čahār 'unṣur , p. 116
2. ↑ Schimmel, Annemarie: Mystische Dimimen des Islam , p. 523, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-424-00866-4
3. ↑ Kulliyāt-i Bīdil , Bombay 1881–82, p. 51
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Encyclopædia Iranica : BĪDEL, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER , accessed on May 6, 2014
5. ↑ City Landmark - Bagh-e-Bedil, Opposite Pragiti Maidan (English).
6. ↑ "The Merciful" ( Arabic الرحمان, DMG ar-Raḥmān ) is one of the most important epithets of God.
7. ↑ Der Islam II , p. 272, Fischer-Weltgeschichte, Frankfurt / Main 1971
8. ↑ ^{a b} Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, translated by Mir Hafizuddin Sadri: Abdul Qader Bedel and his position in the countries of the Persian culture and language area.