Forum Pakistan

Bhitai, Shah Abdul Latif (1689-1751)
Poet. A classical *Sindhi poet and musician, he was a follower of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-73). Regarded as a major saint, his tomb at Bhit Shah, is a place of pilgrimage. His major work is a collection of mystical and narrative poems Shah Jo Risalo ('The Shah's Epistle'), in which the legends and folklore of the *Sindhis, *Punjabis and *Balochis are used as metaphors for the *Sufi concept of heavenly love and the soul's fusion with the Absolute, the soul being represented by the heroine. The text of the Epistle is divided into thirty chapters (surs), each of which has a corresponding music scale (*raga). In the surs the lengthy narrative *dastans are interspersed with short lyrical *wais. The poet used aruz in his dastans, while in the wais he used Sindhi folklore metres: boroduho and tumberiduho, He turned to such traditional Indian forms as barahmasa, chakki-nama and others. The Epistle reflects everyday life as well as the social and spiritual atmosphere of medieval *Sindh. The poetry of Shah Abdul Latif had an enormous influence on the subsequent development of *Sindhi literature. In Europe the Epistle has been known since 1866, when it was translated by E. Trumpp and published in Leipzig.

WORKS: 'Risalo-Shah Abdul Latif', Karachi, 1961. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Dekhtyar, 'On the Composition of the Sindhi Literary Monument 'Shah Jo Risalo", in: The Collection Literature and the Times, Moscow, 1973 (in Russian); A. Dekhtyar, 'Shah Abdul Latif, the Classical Sindhi Author', in: The Collection Indian Literatures (in Russian); M. Jotwani, 'Shah Abdul Latif, his Life and Work', New Delhi, 1975; J. Parsram; 'Sindh and its Sufis', Madras, 1965; P. Mayne, 'Saints of Sindh', Oxford, 1956; A. Schimmel, 'Pain and Grace', Leiden, 1976; H.T Sorley, 'Shah Abdul Latif of Bhit: his Poetry, Life and Times', Oxford, 1966; U.M. Daudpota, 'Sindhi Literature', Karachi, 1951.