Most of you will be familiar with the most famous collection of rubaayis - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Numerous translations of this famous book are freely available at most book stores.

For those who are interested, a brief description of the various forms of Urdu poetry is available at http://www.geocities.com/~fhnaqvi/define.html

A brief history of what is a rubayi. The word "rubayi" (ru-baa-ee) has Arabic origins and is derived from the word "arbaa" meaning four. This is indicative of the structure of a rubayi. A rubayi is an independent 4 line poem rhyming a,a,b,a. Each line of the quatrain conforms to a specific poetic metre called the hazaj, consisting of four metrical units, represented in prosodic terms by the Persian notation: mufailun, mufailun, mufailun, mufailun. There are 24 variants of this basic 'metre'. But most stick to the basic metre.

Though the rubayi originated in the 10th century Iran, it attained popularity only from the 11th century onwards. This was mainly due to the work of three famous poets of that era: Omar Khayyam, Sarmad and Abu ul Khair. The rubayi was transplanted in India along with other forms of Urdu poetry like the qasida and the masnavi and the ghazal in the 13th century. However, it did not get as much importance as the other forms of Urdu poetry. Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah wrote about 50,000 couplets in his entire life, out of which merely 41 are rubayis. Other poets of the the Deccan School also tried their hand at it but without much success or enthusiasm.

The poets of the Delhi school had better success with it. Of the first three main poets of Delhi, Khwaja Mir Dard, Meer Taqi Meer and Mirza Sauda are worth mentioning in this regard. Of the next three main poets of the Delhi school - Ghalib, Zauq and Momin - only Momin paid any significant attention to this poetry form. However, the rubayi really blossomed under the aegis of two poets from Lucknow - Babar Ali Anees and Salamat Ali Dabir. Both were renowned writers of marsiyas (elegies). The simplicity of diction and rhythmic flow of their marsiyas was reflected in their rubayis. Their rubayis also possess a seriousness of purpose and sobriety of style which is charateristic of marsiyas.

Babar Ali Anees started the practice of introducing his longer poems with the recitation of a rubayi. This became a very popular practice and was emulated by many. After Dabir and Anees, the poets who made notable contributions to the growth and popularity of the rubayi are Hali, Akbar Allahabadi and Shad Azeemabadi. Shad Azeemabadi stuck to the devotional themes while Hali and Akbar Allahabadi used it as a vehicle of reform. Hali stuck to religious reform while Akbar Allahabadi used his considerable weaponry of wit and humour to achieve his social reformistic goals.