Radifs and their structural function in Hamid Momand’s ghazels

Abstract

As a structural component of the ghazal genre, radif was adopted by Afghan literature from Persian poetry. Works by Hamid Momand, an outstanding Afghan classical poet, demonstrate that by early 18th century radif was among the typical poetic models in Pashto literature. The article represents the classification of radifs in Hamid’s poetry collection that are grouped by parts of speech with a particular focus on dominant verb-type radifs. The relation between rhyme and radif is also within the scope of investigation which allows us to identify three different types of ghazal structure in Hamid Momand’s poetry depending on the role of a particular radif in the composition: 1) monothematic ghazals, where the radif includes the word denoting their topic; 2) polythematic ghazals that feature homonyms or polysemantic words in the radif with every beit playing on one of the meanings of these words; 3) ghazals, where the radif includes some marginal word while the radif itself functions as a link between beits of discordant theme or contents. A comparative analysis of ghazals with identical radifs composed by different poets allows us to establish some literary links between Hamid Momand’s style and that of his predecessors and followers in Pashto literature.

Keywords:

Hamid Momand, Rahman Baba, Mirza Hanan Barakzay, ‘Ali Han, Bidil Hashgari, classic Afghan literature, Pashto poetry, radif