Methods of Influence of the 13th-Century Afghan Poets by the Ghazals of Abd al-Qadir Bedil: A Study Focused on the Poetry of Mir Hotak Afghan and Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi

Introduction
Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1054-1133 AH) is a prominent poet and representative of the Indian style; he reached the peak of this style through his ghazals. He holds a special place and popularity in Afghanistan, and shortly after his death, he gained fame in Afghanistan and Transoxiana. His ghazals became the focus of attention for poets in the region, to the extent that many poets endeavored to compose their own poetry under the influence of his ghazals. This trend grew so widespread that nearly a century (from the mid-18^th century to the mid-19^th century CE) came to be known as the “Age of Bedilism”. In the 13^th century AH, many prominent Afghan poets were followers of Bedil in some way. Mir Hotak Afghan (1180-1242 AH) and Ghulam Mohammad Tarzi (1254-1318 AH), two prominent poets of this century, are the subject of this study, for whom no research has been done until now under this title.


 

Literature Review

The intense interest of the people and scholars of Afghanistan in Mirza Bedil has led to numerous books and articles being written about him. Over the past hundred years, several researchers have conducted studies and research related to Bedil and his poetry. Notable figures include Allama Salah al-Din Saljuqi, Qari Abdullah, Professor Khalilullah Khalili, Khal Mohammad Khasta, Ghulam Hassan Mujaddedi, Faiz Mohammad Khan Zakarya, Asadullah Habib, Amir Mohammad Atheer, Mohammad Abdolhamid Asir, Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, Abd al-Ghafoor Arezoo, Hosseini Fetrat, and other scholars who have produced one or more works about Bedil. Likewise, in Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan, individuals such as Shafi'i Kadkani, Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabai, Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, Kavous Hosseini, Nabi Hadi, Abd al-Ghani, Noor al-Hassan Ansari, and Sadr al-Din Eyni have written numerous works on Bedil's life, works, and style. Several articles on the stylistic characteristics, and the critique and analysis of his prose and poetry, have been published in various journals. However, specific studies on Bedil's influence on the poets after him have been limited to brief references within discussions about Bedil's works, such as the works of Asadullah Habib and Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, which are commendable. In Iran, there are articles written about the influence of Bedil’s poetry on Iranian poets of the Islamic Revolution and contemporary Iranian and Indian poets, explaining the manner of this influence. However, a separate and comprehensive study on the influence of Bedil on Afghan poets, specifically the two poets mentioned (Tarzi and Afghan), has yet to be undertaken.
 

Methodology

This study uses documentary and content analysis methods to examine the ways in which Bedil Dehlavi influenced the 13^th century AH Afghan poets, focusing on the ghazals of the two poets mentioned, both structurally and thematically. The research demonstrates that these two poets, by imitating and following Bedil's ghazals and using his poetic elements and themes, wrote many poems in which their influence by Bedil is clearly evident at both structural and thematic levels. Thematically, their poems share much in common with Bedil's ghazals. Similarly, at the structural level, aspects such as meter, rhyme, refrain, and vocabulary have been influenced by his works, with the structural similarities being more prominent and striking than the thematic ones.
 
 

Discussion and Conclusion

Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil, a prime example of the Indian style of poetry, holds a special place in Afghanistan and has many followers and admirers. Afghan poets, for over a century, have revived and consolidated the Bedilism movement by emulating Bedil’s poetry in their works. Since Sufi ideas and the Indian style were widely adopted by these poets, their poetry, like Bedil's, was often influenced by such philosophical thoughts, using rhetorical techniques and intricate thoughts in a similar manner.
With the expansion of the Durrani Empire's influence into the Indian subcontinent, Bedil's poetry found its way into Afghanistan, where it gradually gained popularity, especially with the support of the Durrani kings, particularly Timur Shah. The royal court's organization of Bedil recitations and their support for Bedil's followers contributed to the widespread fame of Bedil in Afghanistan. Similarly, the acknowledgment of Bedil's significance by the ruling elite, the printing of his works in the government press, and the consistent organization of Bedil's recitations outside the royal court contributed to the growing popularity of his poetry. Additionally, the proximity of Bedil's language to that of the people of this region, his use of familiar terms and expressions, and his ethnic background—being of the Arlas or Barlas tribe from Badakhshan—further contributed to his influence. Furthermore, his mystical, and unity-of-being ideas in his poetry enhanced his popularity among Sufi circles, leading to greater support from mystics and Sufi poets for his work.
Mir Hotak Afghan and Ghulam Mohammad Tarzi, the poets studied in this research, are among the prominent Bedilists of the 13^th century AH, excelling in their imitation of Bedil. The influence of Bedil on these two poets is clearly observable in their structural, lexical, and thematic choices. Structural influence includes the imitation of meter, rhyme, and refrain, while lexical similarities involve the use of words, phrases, and expressions similar to Bedil's. Thematic influence is also apparent, with both poets drawing heavily from Bedil’s content. In terms of structural influence, both poets extensively adopted Bedil’s meter, rhyme, and refrain, but Tarzi’s adherence to Bedil’s meter and rhyme is more pronounced than Afghan’s, while Afghan’s imitation of refrains is more noticeable. The use of phrases, idioms, and word choices is highly similar, and this resemblance is striking, as demonstrated in the tables and charts. Both poets benefited from Bedil's use of word combinations, with Mir Hotak leading in terms of lexical choices. High-frequency words used by Bedil, such as “astonishment”, “nothingness”, “annihilation”, “mirror”, “pockmark”, and “bubble”, along with combinations formed from these words, appear prominently in both poets' works, especially in Afghan's poetry. Similarly, specific numerical expressions such as “a hundred caravans of wailing”, “a hundred colors of movement”, and “a hundred gardens of fragrance and bloom” are found in both poets' poetry. Thematic influence is so profound that sometimes a ghazal by the poets seems almost identical to a ghazal by Bedil. The themes of their poetry, in line with the spirit of the Indian style, typically revolve around simple, ordinary topics combined with subtlety and imaginative expression.