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The form is ancient, originating in 10th century Persian verse. It is derived from the Persian qasida , which in turn derived from an Arabian form that can be traced back to the 8th century. The ghazal spread into India in the 12th century under the influence of the Mughals. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Urdu poetry, today, it has influenced the poetry of many languages.

Ghazal in short, is a collection of couplets (called sherA sher is a couplet in Urdu, it is form of poetry. Sher is also sometimes refered as Ashaar. Though this definition is deceptively simple but essentially it is the definition, because a sher is not bound by any rules. The only rule is that every sher has) which follow the rules of MatlaMatla is the first Sher or a couplet of a Ghazal. It could happen that there are more than one Matla in a Ghazal, however extremely rare, but if this happens it is called matla-e-sani or literally the second matla., MaqtaA Shayar (Poet who writes Sher in Urdu or Persian) almost always has a takhallus a pen name. For example Mirza Asadullah Khan used Ghalib' as his 'takhallus' and is known by that name. Other examples are Daag' Dehlvi, Mir' Taqi Mir, Said Rahi', Ahmed Fara, BeherBeher' in Urdu Poetry is the meter' of a Sher. It can be considered as the length of the Sher. Both the lines in the Sher, the couplet, MUST be of same 'Beher'. And all the Sher's in one Ghazal MUST be of the same 'Beher'. There are 19 (!!!!) kinds of 'Be, QaafiyaaA device employed in a form of Urdu Poetry known as Ghazals. The Qaafiyaa is the rhyming pattern of words that must directly proceed the Ghazal's Radif. The example below is of a Ghazal below by Daag Dehelvi. In this case the Qaafiyaa is the following pat and RadifA rule in Urdu Poetry states that, in the form of poetry known as a Ghazal the second line of all the Shers must end with the same word/s. This repeating common words is the 'Radif' of the Ghazal. It is proceeded by a by a Qaafiyaa, which is a repeating p. The traditional complete ghazal has a matla, a maqta, and three other shers in between. The first two shers of a ghazal have the form of a qatha (a specific variation of which is a ruba'ee ; most familiar to modern readers from Khayyam's RubayyatThe Rubaiyat is a collection of poems (of which there are about a thousand) by the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam ( 1048- 1122). Rubaiyat" means " quatrains": verses of four lines. Translations The nature of a translation very much depe.

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 used the Persian as well as the Urdu language. 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".

The ghazal is a common song form in India and Pakistan today. Strictly speaking, it is not a musical form, but a poetic recitation. Today, however, it is commonly conceived of as an Urdu song, with prime importance given to the lyrics.