by God, he will arise as the Islamic messiah, the
mahdi, to rule and establish justice on earth until
JUdgment day. Although the death of the fourth
deputy signaled a cessation of formal contact
between the imam and his community, the Hid-
den Imam is thought to be in contact with many
of his followers miraculously, through dreams or
visions. In his absence, authority is exercised by
his representatives, the Ulama, who are masters
of religious law and the traditions of the imams.
The most influential group of Shii ulama in recent
times are the Mujtahids, those who can practice
ijtihad, or independent reasoning based on the
principals of fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence.
The concept of ghayba is shared by other Shia
groups, including the drUze. This religious group,
which developed from ismaili shiism, believes in a
lesser and greater ghayba that began with the dis-
appearance of their caliph-imam al-Hakim, whom
they consider to be divine, in 1021.
A doctrine resembling that of ghayba exists
among other Shia groups. This doctrine, known as
satr, refers to the concealment of a continuing line
of imams. The bohra Shiis of India believe that
their imams are in satr.
See also akhbari school; aUthority; tWelve-
imam shiism; UsUli school.
Jamel VeljiFurther reading: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Hamid Dabashi,
and Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, eds., Shi’ism: Doctrines,
Thought, Spirituality (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1988); Wilferd Madelung, “Authority in
Twelver Shiism in the Absence of the Imam.” In La notion
d’authorité au Moyen Âge: Islam, Byzance, Occident (Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1978), 163–173.
ghazal (Arabic; also ghazel, gazal)
A ghazal is a love poem about eternal desire never
fulfilled, in which unrequited and unattainable
love drives the loyal lover to misery. Often, the
lover will be likened to a moth near a candle,
while the beloved is beautiful and inaccessible,
off gallivanting with another or drinking from a
wine goblet. The ghazal can be interpreted both
as a love poem and a devotional poem, for the
pain of separation that one feels from one’s lover
is analogous to the pain of separation one feels
from God.
The ghazal is originally a Persian poetic form
that came to india in the 12th century with
Muslim rule and flourished in India during the
mUghal dynasty (1526–1708). The rise of Urdu
as the popular poetic language of north India gave
birth to the Urdu ghazal, which is between five
and 15 couplets long and uses the same rhyme
and refrain throughout the poem. Although an
Urdu ghazal is a single poem, each couplet within
the ghazal is considered a poem in and of itself,
like a pearl in a necklace.
In India, the popularity of the ghazal led
to the development of the mushaira, which is a
gathering of poets who recite ghazal couplets to
one another. The ghazal also evolved into its own
musical form, as ghazal singers began performing
with semiclassical musicians. Early Indian cinema
incorporated ghazal mUsic into its commercial
films, making ghazal music popular and acces-
sible to a larger audience.
Although the ghazal has historically been
associated with Islam, it is now an ecumenical
form of poetry adopted by different religious com-
munities. The Urdu ghazal is still the most famous
form and remains popular in pakistan and India,
but ghazal traditions have emerged in other South
Asian languages as well as in Spanish, Italian, and
English. Among the most famous ghazal poets are
Amir Khusrau (d. 1325), Hafiz (d. 1389), Mir Taqi
Mir (d. 1810), mirza ghalib (d. 1869), and Faiz
Ahmed Faiz (d. 1984).
See also persian langUage and literatUre.Varun SoniFurther reading: Agha Shahid Ali, ed., Ravishing Dis-
unities: Real Ghazals in English (Middletown, Conn.:K 260 ghazal