Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 7، October 2026 ، issue Number 125

A Stylistic Study of the Poetry of Muhammad Hasan Qatil Lahori, a Persian-Language Poet of India

Ahmad Reza Kord (Author in Charge), Abdolali Oveisi Kahkha (Author in Charge), Mohammad Ali Mahmoudi

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In contemporary Persian literary studies, stylistics plays a fundamental role in analyzing the linguistic, rhetorical, and intellectual dimensions of poetic works. Within this framework, the Persian poetry of the Indian subcontinent, owing to its linguistic diversity, rich imagery, and the interaction between Persian and Indian cultures, offers significant potential for stylistic investigation. The present study aims to analyze the linguistic, literary, and intellectual styles of the ghazals of Muhammad Hasan Qatil Lahori and to identify the distinctive features of his poetic style.

METHODOLOGY: This study adopts a descriptive–analytical approach based on library research and documentary analysis. The statistical population consists of the Divan of Muhammad Hasan Qatil Lahori"s ghazals, edited by Zahida Parveen and published by the University of Lahore, Pakistan.

FINDINGS: The findings indicate that, although Qatil is regarded as one of the Persian-speaking poets of the Indian subcontinent, he demonstrates remarkable mastery of the Persian language. His poetic language is clear, fluent, and readily comprehensible, showing little evidence of linguistic complexity or obscurity. Rather than reflecting the intricate and highly imaginative characteristics typically associated with the Indian Style (Sabk-e Hindi), his poetry exhibits a stronger affinity with the Iraqi Style (Sabk-e Iraqi). The clarity of imagery, simplicity of expression, and avoidance of excessive rhetorical complexity bring his poetic language closer to the classical and balanced tradition of Persian poetry. At the intellectual level, the dominant themes of his poetry revolve around love, Qalandariyyat (antinomian mystical motifs), and mystical thought.

CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that Qatil Lahori employs a balanced combination of colloquial vocabulary, archaic Persian expressions, and Arabic loanwords in his poetic language. In certain instances, he also introduces creative lexical innovations, although such examples are relatively limited. With regard to poetic music, the Ramal metre is the most frequently employed metrical pattern in his poetry, while verbal radif (refrain) and sajʿ-e mutarraf constitute the most prominent musical devices. Lexical repetition, semantic opposition (antithesis), and mora"at al-nazir (semantic correspondence) are likewise among the most recurrent stylistic features of his poetic language. At the rhetorical level, emphatic simile (tashbih-e baligh) and explicit metaphors (isti"arah musarrahah) serve as his principal techniques of imagery. However, the use of uslub al-mu"adalah (analogical parallelism), one of the hallmark features of the Indian Style, is not widespread in his poetry. At the intellectual level, his poems primarily focus on themes such as the description of the beloved, nature, love, mystical concepts, complaints against the vicissitudes of time, and Qalandari motifs.

Keyword
Muhammad Hasan Qatil Lahori , Stylistics , Linguistic Level , Literary Level , Intellectual Level.