The Idea of The City Disturber in Khusrau’s ‘The Fine Lads of Delhi’

Urdu poets such as Mirza Rafi and Mir Taqi used the genre of classical Urdu poetry called Shahr-e-Ashob (meaning, the city’s misfortune) to portray the image of the sacked city of Delhi after the Persian attack. Amir Khusrau, on the other hand, was a prolific classical poet associated with the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. Unlike Rafi and Taqi, Khusrau used the same genre in his ghazal ‘The Fine Lads of Delhi’, but with a slight difference, as his portrayal was of the beautiful and romanticized boys of Delhi, who disturbed the city’s peace because of their beauty.

Delhi, governed under Mughal rule, was the center of culture and politics. The idea of the urban city was emphasized in this genre, as its functioning for the rulers, elite class, working class, and foreign inhabitants or traders was imperative. Carla R. Petievich, in her essay ‘Poetry of The Declining Mughals: The Shahr Ashob’, writes that Delhi became the most renowned city not only in India but throughout the East, from Constantinople to Canton, known for its courts, mosques, and its literary and artistic fame. This city, where Khusrau spent most of his days, was meant to function without any vicissitudes, which Khusrau used as a medium to express his thoughts.

This ghazal was part of Khusrau’s larger narrative poem, Qirān alsa‘dain (The Conjunction of Two Auspicious Stars), which praised Delhi’s buildings and its inhabitants. The depiction of urbanity in this manner did not originate in India but had its roots in Persian and Turkish traditions. While Urdu tradition differed slightly, it shared commonalities with the former in its interrelation of social, political, and cultural spheres, with a strong emphasis on places and narration.

The desirability of these “ravishing youths” of Delhi agitated the poet. This desirability might be related to their occupation, following the lines of the work composed under this genre. In a city full of trade and commerce, everyone had an assigned role, and here, the poet performed his. Unlike the Persian and Turkish traditions, which portrayed a positive uproar demonstrating the prosperity of a king’s reign, the Urdu style was more focused on ideas of calamity and disturbance. In Khusrau’s ghazal, the object of desire can be both earthly beauty or the sacred divine. His writing style not only depicted praises and devotion to Nizamuddin Auliya, a Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, or the utterances of a female voice addressing her absent lover or a parent, but also incorporated another striking feature.

The depth of physical descriptions and the analogies used in the ghazal draw attention to the concept of Amrad Parastii (homosexuality), which led the poet into “drunken ruin.” Although these carnal feelings were considered against the order of nature, their connection to the bazaar culture seems relevant. Saleem Kidwai, in his essay ‘Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Perso-Urdu Tradition’, explains that due to trade and commerce, there was a lot of men-to-men interaction, where men from different castes and communities formed relations. Interestingly, homoerotically inclined men were visible in medieval Muslim histories and were often described without any pejorative commentary, which is the relation Khusrau may have invoked in this poem.

Another allusion can be found in the introduction written by Sunil Sharma in his compilation ‘In The Bazaar of Love: Selected Poetry of Amir Khusrau’. Sharma points out that in ghazals, love often carries a homoerotic dimension since the beloved was frequently depicted as a young boy—a literary convention used in early Persian ghazals where pageboys or Saqis were considered witnesses to divine beauty.

Khusrau’s ghazal rightly projected the arrogance, style, pomp, and grandeur of the city and its inhabitants. The youths Khusrau described unintentionally played games of love with him, doing nothing more than existing in their beauty. Their turbans, twisted braids, sipping of wine, and willfulness illustrated the poet’s heightened yearning for this forbidden love. He used images of nature to juxtapose his longing with their allure, comparing them to winds, blooming roses, and the sun. Their allure made him question his religious beliefs, as, influenced by his father, he imbibed Islam and Sufism, in which his primary devotion was to worship Allah, the sole creator of everything. In this poem, he seemed uncertain whether to worship the sun deity, whom the lads adored, or stand firm against their enticement.

In the last stanza, Khusrau described his yearning in a forbidden manner—through alcoholism. The reader can notice a gradual shift in his tone, beginning with the romanticization of their appearance in subtle ways, to becoming completely ruthless by the end of the ghazal. The final image of his description likens him to a submissive animal on a leash, symbolizing the control the fine lads of Delhi had over him. He linked his personal feelings and emotions to the socio-political public sphere of Delhi, indicating that because of these youths, he was disturbed. Thus, alluding to the trope of love, the entire city had been disturbed.

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