When Sun Meets Moon: Gender, Eros, and Ecstasy in Urdu PoetryThe two Muslim poets featured in Scott Kugle’s comparative study lived separate lives during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in the Deccan region of southern India. Here, they meet in the realm of literary imagination, illuminating the complexity of gender, sexuality, and religious practice in South Asian Islamic culture. Shah Siraj Awrangabadi (1715-1763), known as “Sun,” was a Sunni who, after a youthful homosexual love affair, gave up sexual relationships to follow a path of personal holiness. Mah Laqa Bai Chanda (1768-1820), known as “Moon,” was a Shi'i and courtesan dancer who transferred her seduction of men to the pursuit of mystical love. Both were poets in the Urdu language of the ghazal, or love lyric, often fusing a spiritual quest with erotic imagery. Kugle argues that Sun and Moon expressed through their poetry exceptions to the general rules of heteronormativity and gender inequality common in their patriarchal societies. Their art provides a lens for a more subtle understanding of both the reach and the limitations of gender roles in Islamic and South Asian culture and underscores how the arts of poetry, music, and dance are integral to Islamic religious life. Integrated throughout are Kugle’s translations of Urdu and Persian poetry previously unavailable in English. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 8 | |
2 Sirajs Bewilderment | 29 |
3 Sirajs Silence | 47 |
4 Eros and Spirit | 71 |
5 Poetry as Music | 100 |
6 TransitWhen Sufis Meet Shiis | 120 |
7 Mah Laqa Bais Radiance | 147 |
8 Mah Laqa Bais Men | 166 |
Other editions - View all
When Sun Meets Moon: Gender, Eros, and Ecstasy in Urdu Poetry Scott Alan Kugle No preview available - 2016 |
When Sun Meets Moon: Gender, Eros, and Ecstasy in Urdu Poetry Scott Alan Kugle No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Alam Ali's Amir Amir Khusro Arabic Aristu Jah artistic ascetic ashur-khana Awrangabad Bai's beauty beloved biography Burhan al-Din Gharib Burhanpur Chanda chapter Chishti Sufis composed couplet court courtesan culture dance dancer dargah daughter Deccan Delhi devotional died divan erotic express female final couplet garden gender ghazal Golkonda Hasan heart Hindu homosexual Husain Hyderabad Ibid images imams intimacy Islamic Jawhar Khan king Kugle Kulliyāt-e Sirāj literary lover Mah Laqa Bai male Maratha masculinity masnavi Mawla meiń Mida Bibi moon Mughal Muhammad Muslim mystical Naqshbandi Nizam al-Din Awliya patron performance Persian personality poems poetic poets political praise Prophet Qawwali Qur'an Qutb-Shahi radīf Raj Kanvar Bai rekhta rekhti religious rhyme ritual romantic ruler second nizam sexual Shah Bajan Shah Siraj Shaikh Shi'i Shi'ism Siraj and Mah social South Asia spiritual Sufi Sufi master Sufism sung Sunni Tajalli tion tomb Urdu poetry voice woman women