What is a ghazal?

Typically composed of a minimum of five couplets and a maximum of fifteen, the ghazal is a poetic form of song or ballad consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain which originated from 6th century Arabic verse. Each line in a ghazal share the same meter but the couplets are structurally, thematically, and emotionally autonomous. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of pain. The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century due to the influence of Sufi mystics and the courts of the new Islamic Sultanate. Although the ghazal began prominently as a form of Dari and Urdu poetry, today it is found in the poetry of many languages of the Indian sub-continent.