In Persian, Turkic, Hindustani and Punjabi, the word takhallus (from Arabic , ; ; ; ; , ) means a pen name. Pen names were widely adopted by Persian, Turkic, Urdu and Punjabi poets.
The takhallus is often included in the maqta, the last couplet (bayt) of a ghazal.
History and usage
In classical Arabic literature and rhetoric, the term takhallus (Arabic: تخلص, lit. 'freeing oneself' or 'transition') originally refers to the seamless thematic transition from the opening prelude (nasīb) of a qasida (ode) to its primary subject, typically praise (madīḥ). The masterful execution of this transition is highly regarded in Arabic prosody and is termed ḥusn al-takhalluṣ (good transition).
When the ghazal later evolved into a fully independent poetic form, Persian and subsequently Urdu authors adopted and redefined the term. In the Persianate tradition, takhallus evolved to mean the poet's adopted pen name. It became a formalized structural convention for the poet to weave this pen name into the maqta (the concluding couplet) of the poem., deriving from the Arabic hasra (حسرة). It is also the Persian and Hindustani pronunciation of the Islamic honorific hadra (Arabic: حضرة).
See also
- List of pseudonyms
- List of pen names
- Kunya, Laqab, and Nisba