Welcome to Edinburgh’s Mushaira

Edinburgh City Libraries hosted its first Asian poetry event, called the Mushaira in 1989. Mushaira 2008 took place on Saturday 18th October in McDonald Road Library, thanks to funding from the Awards for All, Big Lottery Fund.

• Video clips of Edinburgh's Mushaira
• Scottish Asian poets
• Aims of the Mushaira

Video clips of Edinburgh's Mushaira

View Saeed Majeed Khan (wmv, 4mb)
View Saeed Majeed Khan (flv, 4mb)

View video clips from other Mushaira poets:

• Mirza Hasan Beg
• Gurjit Kaur McDonald
• Saleem Raza

The video clip above is in wmv format.  If it does not start to play automatically, this means that you do not have Windows Media Player installed on your computer. You can either download this software or try playing the flv format file instead. You need Adobe Flash Player to view flv files.  

Click on your chosen link above and choose open or, to download files to your computer, right click on the file and select "save target as..." or "save link as...".   When you have downloaded the file, double click on the file name to begin playing the clip.

Scottish Asian poets

• Mohiuddin Ahmed
• Faizan Arif
• Shaista Asad
• Dr Hasan Beg
• Tahir Bashir Ferozepuri
• Bushra Ghori
• Muhammad Yaqoob Ghori
• Saeed Majeed Khan
• Professor Tariq Muneer
• Manjula Parekh (nee Bakhda)
• Rahat Zahid

Aims of Edinburgh Mushaira

Mushaira is one of the oldest art forms in the Indo-Pak sub-continent and the tradition of poetry reading stretches back several hundred years. Mushaira is a gathering of poets who, by tradition, recite their own poetry for the benefit of an appreciative audience.

The aim of this event is to provide opportunities for Scottish Asian poets to participate in Edinburgh Mushaira and to keep the tradition of Asian poetry alive in Edinburgh.

Besides the Scottish Asian poets, prominent poets from all over UK are also invited to participate in Edinburgh’s Mushaira.  Poets from all walks of life are encouraged to recite their own poetry; their poem topics range from humour, philosophy, current affairs, love and politics to employment.

Encouragingly, young poets like Isa Ameen Sher and Shamylla Syed are also enthusiastically participating and carrying on the traditions of Mushaira.

If you’d like to participate or to join the Mushaira committee, please email Ethnic Services.