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[[File:An illustrated manuscript of one of Amir Khusrau's poems 1.jpg|thumb|An illustrated manuscript of one of Amir Khusrau's poems.]]
[[File:A page of Amir Khusrow's riddles.djvu|thumb|A page of Amir Khusrow's riddles]]
The '''Riddles of [[Amir Khusrow]]''' were developed during the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the [[Delhi Sultanate]]. During this time, Khusrow wrote not only many playful riddles, but songs and legends which have been a part of popular culture in South Asia ever since. Additionally, his riddles and songs and legends are considered to be an important early witness to the [[Hindustani language]].<ref name="Sharma 2005">{{cite book|last1=Sharma|first1=Sunil|title=Amir Khusraw : the poet of Sufis and sultans|date=2005|publisher=Oneworld|location=Oxford|isbn=1851683623|pages=79}}</ref> His riddles in particular involve fun double entendre or, wordplay.<ref name="Sharma 2005"/> Innumerable riddles by this poet are being passed through oral tradition for the past seven centuries with a notable increase in recent times.<ref name="Sharma 2005"/> However, there is some debate about whether Khusrow was the real author of the riddles attributed to him;<ref>Annemarie Schimmel, ''Classical Urdu Literature from the Beginning to Iqbāl'', A History of Indian Literature, 8 (Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, 1975), p. 129.</ref> some riddles transmitted under his name concern subjects which did not exist in Khusrow's own time, such as the gun and [[Hookah|hookah]].<ref>Riaz, Robiya, '[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144523338.pdf Evolution of Literary Hindavi up to 1740' (unpublished M.Phil. dissertation, Aligarh Muslim University, 2011), pp. 37-38.</ref>

The collection contains 286 riddles, divided into six groups, 'apparently on the basis of the structure of the riddle and the structure of the answer'; 'these riddles are "in the style of the common people", but most scholars believe they were composed by Khusro'.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Prakash Vatuk | first1 = Ved | year = 1969 | title = Amir Khusro and Indian Riddle Tradition | journal = The Journal of American Folklore | volume = 82 | pages = 142–54 [144, 143] | doi = 10.2307/539075 }}</ref> The riddles are in [[Mātrika metre]].

==Examples==

One sequence of the riddles is posed as a dialogue between a woman describing some mundane phenomenon and an interlocutor who imagines she is talking about sex, asking 'Who, girl, your man?' For example:<ref>''In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amīr Khusrau'', trans. by Paul E. Losensky and Sunil Sharma (New Delhi: Penguin, 2011), p. 114 [nos 74-75].</ref>
<poem>
He visits my town once a year.
He fills my mouth with kisses and nectar.
I spend all my money on him.
''Who, girl, your man?''
No, a mango.

He stays up all night alone with me
and only leaves at the crack of dawn.
His departure breaks my heart.
''Who, girl, your man?''
No, an oil lamp.</poem>

==Editions and translations==
* Amir Khusrau Dehlavi, ''Jawahar-i-Khusravi'', ed. by Rashid Ahmad Salim (Aligarh: Majmua-i-Rasail Institute Press, 1917).
* Brajratna Das, ''Khusro kī Hindī Kavitā'' (Kashi, 1922)
* Gopi Chand Narang, ''Amir Khusrau ka Hindavi Kalam'' (Delhi: Photo Offset Printer, 1987)
* ''In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amīr Khusrau'', trans. by Paul E. Losensky and Sunil Sharma (New Delhi: Penguin, 2011), pp. 114-16 (nos 74-78)
* [[Ankit Chadha]], ''Amir Khusrau: The Man in Riddles'' (Gurgaon: Penguin, 2016) (popular adaptation of twenty riddles for children)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Riddles]]

Riddles of Amir Khusrow - Revision history

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