It was at this time that Persian poetry began. Hence the beloved of Persian poets came to be this monastic youth.5
This explains not only the use of the masculine pronoun for the beloved and the description of boyish beauty in the ghazal but, as Muhammad Sadiq, the historian of Urdu literature, says 'how words like kalTsa (ecclesia), dair (monastery), pTr-e-mugaN (the old man of the tavern), and mug-baca (the Magian boy) entered the Persian poetic tradition, and were later imported into Urdu/6 With this historical background one would have thought it impossible to deny the significance of the theme of boy-love in the ghazal. However, Altaf Hussain Halt, a moralist and a prude, was at pains to do so. He dismisses this theme as based on a 'misunderstanding" and not on reality/ He then goes on to prescribe that poetry should be purged of such themes and the references to the beloved should not reveal the sex. Although Halt was refuted by some critics, notably by Andalib Shadani,8 many others slurred over the pederastic references in the works of Mir Taqi Mir and other poets. In a major article, however, Shadani provided couplets from Mir's six collections of verse to prove that he was sexually interested in boys.9 In another article he also suggested that Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869), perhaps the greatest poet of Urdu, also wrote his ghazal as if his beloved was a boy.10 In Pakistan two critics, Shamim Rizvi and Saleem Akhtar, have also written about MIT'S predilection for boys." Shamim argues that Mir first fell in love with a woman but, since this love affair was frustrated, he turned to boys. Saleem Akhtar also agrees with this and calls Mir's interest in boys as 'a kind of defence mechanism/12 However, he also adds that since loving boys was not regarded as an abnormality or a mental illness in Mir's Delhi culture, this taste might has given his personality a semblance of normalcy Since the rise of sexual prudery in the 19th century India, there have been attempts
^bdul Halim Sharar, "hamar? Su'ara ka mahbub" in Ma^amm-e-Sarar, Vol.11 English translation quoted from Sadiq, pp 25-26.
'Sadiq, p. 26.
^taf Hussam Hall, Muqaddama-e Si'r-o-Sa'in (1893; Lahore: Kashmir Kitab Char, 1971), p 112
8Andallb Shadani, "mafybub k? lie' fi'l-e mu^akkar ka isti'mal" in TahqTtf KT RoSnT MdV (Lahore: Sheikh Ghulam All & Sons, n.d.), pp 187-120.
^dabb Shadani, "MTr Sahtb ka ek xas rang" in TahqTaat (Bareilly, 1946), pp 135-177
^Andalib Shadani, "Iran kT amrad-parastT ka asar Urdu 'sa'ir! par19, in TahcfTaat (Bareilly/ 1946), pp. 193-221.
Shamim Rizvi, "M^ka^^m Barg-e Gul (Urdu College Karachi, 1953-54), pp 100-129, Saleem Akhtar, "Si'r wmT Iran. gaya" in Taxliq aur La-ta'un Muharrik'at (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1983), pp. 173-199.
"Akhtar, p. 192
Annual of Urdu Studies, #7 ^