Tazkira is actually a major form of Urdu literature and also Persian literature. Tazkira is a special type of biographical anthology, which is roughly, at all times, of poetry alone. The Tazkeres, are compilation of literary memoirs that comprise verses and maxims of the great poets along with biographical information and commentary on their styles. This is often a mere collection of names with a line or two of information about each poet, followed by specimen of his composition.
On the other hand it may be the history of Urdu poetry with copious illustrative extracts. There are really no good Tazkiras. The best give biographical details, but fail in literary criticism, and we get little idea of style or poetical power, still less of contents of poems. Even the large anthologies do not systematically review an author`s work. Most of them have the names in alphabetical order, but one or two prefer historical order. The majority quote only lyrics, and the quotations, usually chosen at random, do not illustrate poetry.
This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to content@indianetzone.com
