Saba Akbarabadi and Thematic Threnodes(Marsiya)

Abstract

Saba Akbarabadi is seen as a bright star in the sky of Threnodes. Although he is the author of more than three hundred ghazals, he is best known for writing naats and threonodes. Like Josh Malihabadi, Saba Akbarabadi embellished the Threnodes with modern themes and shaped the Threnodes into a poem that represents the literature of life. The themes that Saba has included in the theranods and discussed their importance and nature in a poetic, philosophical and intellectual manner, this kind of creation is rarely seen in Urdu theranods. Among the themes that Saba chose are wind, dust, humans, migration, life, insight and vision etc. Saba has linked these themes to Karbala. These themes are rarely discussed in the genre of Theranods. By the end of the 20th century, threnodes were dying out. Saba made Threnodes a part of scientific and philosophical discourse to go beyond lamentation to facts and this is his great achievement.This article is a key attempt to explore themes  of the Threnodes of the Saba Akbarabadi.