Amir Khosrow

Amir Khusrau
Amir Khusrow teaching his disciples in a miniature from a manuscript of Majlis al-Ushshaq by Husayn Bayqarah.
Background information
Birth name	Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn K͟husrau
Born	1253 Patiyali, Delhi Sultanate
Died	October 1325 Delhi, Delhi Sultanate
Genres	Ghazal, Qawwali, Ruba'i, Tarana
Occupation(s)	Sufi, musician, poet, composer, author, scholar
Website	http://www.khusrau.com

Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325) (Urdu: ابوالحسن یمین‌الدین خسرو‎‎, Hindi: अमीर ख़ुसरो), better known as Amīr Khusrow, was an Indian Sufi musician, poet and scholar. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. A vocabulary in verse, the Ḳhāliq Bārī, containing Arabic, Persian, and Hindavi terms is often attributed to him. Khusrow is sometimes referred to as the "parrot of India".

Khusrow is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (a devotional music form of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent), and introduced the ghazal style of song into India, both of which still exist widely in India and Pakistan. Khusrow was an expert in many styles of Persian poetry which were developed in medieval Persia, from Khāqānī's qasidas to Nizami's khamsa. He used 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. He wrote in many verse forms including ghazal, masnavi, qata, rubai, do-baiti and tarkib-band. His contribution to the development of the ghazal was significant.

Amīr Khusrow was born in Patiyali in the Delhi Sultanate (in modern day Uttar Pradesh, India) in 1253. His father, Amīr Saif ud-Dīn Mahmūd, was a Turkic officer and a member of the Lachin tribe of Transoxania, themselves belonging to the Kara-Khitais. During Genghis Khan's invasion of Central Asia, Amir Saif ud-Din migrated from his hometown of Kesh, near Samarkand, to Balkh, where he was the chieftain of the Hazara. Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, the Sultan of Delhi at the time, welcomed them to the Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish provided shelter to exiled princes, artisans, scholars and rich nobles. In 1230, Amir Saif ud-Din was granted a fief in the district of Patiyali.