A form of Arabic or Urdu poetry with rhyming couplets and a refrain, often expressing themes of love, loss, and longing.
From Arabic ghazal (غزل) meaning 'spinning of thread' or 'to talk of love.' Originally referred to love poetry, the term came to describe the specific poetic form popular in Islamic literature.
The original meaning 'spinning thread' perfectly captures how ghazals work—they loop back on themselves with repeated refrains, just like thread spinning in circles, creating hypnotic emotional patterns.
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