The Divine Female Imagery in Amir Khusrau’s Medieval Islamic Poetry Reimagining Spiritual Diasporas for Musically Dialogical Pathways of Love

Abstract

Within the Islamic tradition, Sufism is a form of Islamic mysticism that emphasizes dialogue as the love for fellow human beings and for God, referred to in Sufi literature as ‘the Ultimate Beloved.’ In Sufism, one of the vehicles of spiritual dialogue between Man and God is poetry set to music, particularly in the form of ‘Qawwali.’This research focusses on the work of Amir Khusrau as an historian, mystic and especially as a poet whose poetical oeuvre leads to the birth of the musical tradition known as Qawwali. Examining Khusrau as historian, poet and mystic, the research assesses the broader influence of Sufi-Islamic (mystical) footprints on socio-cultural, political, and religious/spiritual traditions in the Indian subcontinent. Khusrau’s use of the Sufi mystical imagination of divine love with its female poetic imagery set in the medieval Indian Islamic tradition is also briefly discussed.