Shahr Ashob
The Shahr Ashob, sometimes spelled Shahar-i Ashūb or Shahrashub, is a genre that becomes prominent in Urdu poetry in South Asia with its roots in classical Persian and Urdu poetic lamentations. The genre has early medieval origins in the twelfth century or earlier, but came to be as widely used by poets beginning in the late Mughal Empire and the post-Mughal era in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ashob is regarded by scholars as an important historical genre in Persian, Urdu and Turkish literature used by the writers to express their anguish and sorrows over political and social shifts.
The Ashobs generally describe emotional and thoughts of a writer in a narrative poetic format based on several features. It begins with a detailed depiction of a particular moment, delivered in a tone of anguish. It consists of five to six stanzas normally written in rhymed verse for the first four lines. The first line rhymes with the second, third and fourth, and the fifth line rhymes with none of these, but sums up the emotions expressed therein.
History
Ashob originally came into existence in 16th century. It was first introduced in south Asia by the Mughal poets, including Masud Sa'd Salman, who started writing Ashobs during his literary career. Some ashobs were also written by Shakir Naji who served in the Army of the Mughal Empire during Muhammad Shah's reign. When the king was defeated, he covered major impacts of military conflict on the Mughal kingdom. An Indian poet Qayem Chandpuri was also engaged in writing ashobs. His writing covered civil–military relations, mainly military aid between the sixteenth Mughal ruler Shah Alam II and Maratha Empire in order to defeat Zabita Khan in 1772. Some prominent poets, including Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda are also credited with "ashob writings". Mirza wrote a list of ashobs on Nader Shah's invasion of India, while Mir wrote on economic crisis of Delhi.Later, ashob was merely used after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, and since then it began disappearing until the British rule made several people flee across the Indian subcontinent to the neighboring states or countries. It is believed the ashob was popularized during the 1857 uprising in India, but later it was not used in the modern literature.