The term ‘Urdu’ and its origin
The term Urdu derives from a Turkish word ordu meaning camp or army. The Urdu language developed between the Muslim soldiers of the Mughals armies who belonged to various ethnicities like Turks, Arabs, Persians, Pathans, Balochis, Rajputs, Jats and Afghans. These soldiers lived in close contact with each other and communicated in different dialects, which slowly and gradually evolved into present day Urdu. It is for this reason that Urdu is also referred to as Lashkari Zaban or language of the army.
During its development Urdu language also assumed various names like the term Urdu-e-Maullah meaning the exalted army which was given by Emperor Shah Jahan and the term Rekhta meaning scattered (with Persian words) which was coined by the scholars for Urdu poetry.
History and Evolution of Urdu Language
Evolution and development of any language is dependent on the evolution and development of a society where that language is spoken. Various invasions and conquests on a place affect the development of its language. Urdu is no exception as it also underwent various stages of development.
Urdu belongs to the Indo-Aryan family of languages. Urdu by origin is considered to be a descendent of Saur Senic Prakrit. The term Prakrriti means root or basis. It is a later version of Sanskrit. As Prakrit language began to develop, it was influenced by Western Hindi dialects of Khari Boli, Brij Bhasa and Haryanvi.
With the coming of Insha’s Darya-e-Latafat*, a need was felt to differentiate Urdu with other languages especially Hindi. It became a Hindi-Urdu controversy and as a result Khari Boli and Devanagari became the identity of Indians while Urdu and Persian of Muslims. In this context, Persian and Arabic words replaced with Sanskrit served the purpose of differentiating Hindi from Urdu.
Urdu emerged as a distinct language after 1193 AD – the time of the Muslims conquest. When the Muslims conquered this part of the continent, they made Persian the official and cultural language of India. As a result of the amalgamation of local dialects and the language of the invaders – which was either Persian, Arabic and Turkish, a new language evolved which later became Urdu. During the Mughals reign, Urdu was spoken in palaces and court and till the end of the Mughal rule; Urdu was the official language of most of Mughal states. This was the time when Urdu had become Persianized and enriched with Persian words, phrases and even script and grammar. With the coming of the British, new English words also became part of the Urdu language. Many English words were accepted in their real form while others were accepted after some modifications.
Currently, Urdu vocabulary contains approximately 70% of Persian words and the rest are a mixture of Arabic and Turkish words. However, there are also traces of the French, Portuguese and Dutch language in Urdu. But these influences are little.
Urdu was taken to other parts of the country by soldiers, saints and sufis and by the common people. As a result of the political, social and cultural contacts amongst the people of different speech and dialects, a mixed form of language formed called ‘Rekhta’ (Urdu and Persian in mixed form). Soon people started to use the new language in their speech and in literature which resulted in the enrichment of Urdu language and literature.
Urdu Literature
The origin of Urdu literature dates back to the 13th century in India during the Mughal rule. One of the most eminent earliest poets who made usage of Urdu in his poetry is Amir Khusro who can be called the father of Urdu language. In literature, Urdu was usually used along side Persian. Mughal kings were the great patrons of art and literature and it was under their rule that Urdu language reached its zenith. There used to be a tradition of ‘Sheri Mehfils’ (poetic gatherings) in the kings’ courts. Abul Fazal Faizi and Abdul Rahim Khankhana were the famous Urdu poets of Mughal court. Likewise, Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Hakim Momin, Ibrahim Zauq, Mir Taqi Mir, Sauda, Ibn-e-Insha and Faiz Ahmed Faiz have contributed to the evolution of Urdu language through their literary works.
It is indeed true that Hindi and Urdu are descendents of the same language i.e. Prakrit, but where the Hindi took influence from Sanskrit and adopted Devanagri script of writing, Urdu absorbed words from Persian, Turkish and Arabic languages and adopted Persian-Arabic script and Nastaliq calligraphic style of writing and emerged as a separate language. But beside common ancestry, the two languages are as different as can be. There are marked grammatical, phonological and lexical differences in both languages.
Urdu was also used as a tool by the Muslims for freedom struggle and for creating awareness among Muslim communities in South Asia to unite under the banner of Independence from British Raj. For this, services of Maulana Hali, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal are notable, who through their poetry and prose provoked the necessary spark in the lives of the Muslims. Urdu was chosen to become the national language of Pakistan at the time of Independence from British. Urdu is now the national language of Pakistan, spoken and understood thoroughly by majority of the population.
A book by Ibn-e-Insha, dealing with phonetic and linguistic characteristics of Urdu and a variety of work formations and rhetorical expressions.
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The word ‘ Urdu ‘ is derived from Turkish word ‘ Ordu ‘ meaning ‘ Army Camp ‘ or ‘Lashkar ‘ . Exact origin of ‘ Urdu ‘ is some what difficult to trace; but many different theories have been developed to explain it. Mohammad Hussain Azad, an eminent Indian scholar, believes that Brij Bhasha, a dialect of Western Hindi, is the mother language of Urdu. Later on the invasion of Delhi by Muslims engrafted many Persian elements, which resulted in the creation of a new hybrid language called Urdu.
Mehmud Sherani, on the contrary, maintains that Urdu language originated due to the interaction and intermixing of Muslim soldiers and locals (Hindus) after the conquest of Punjab and sindh by Mehmud of Ghazni. During this era many Punjabi words and idioms got interwoven in Hindi of Delhi and thus a new language came into being.
But the most established theory relating the origination, evolution and development of Urdu language is that Urdu is a conglomeration of many different languages manly Arabic, Persian, Pashtu, Turkish, Hindi and some local dialects of India. Muslims ruled over India for about 1,000 years. Muslim army comprised of soldiers of different origins and nationalities speaking different languages. Interaction among these soldiers and with the locals led to the development of a new language, mutually understood by all. This new language named as ‘ Urdu ‘ proved to be a unifying communication tool between the Muslim soldiers during their conquest of ancient India (including Mayanmar).
Languages do not originate overnight, they take centuries to evolve and develop, similarly it took about 5 to 6 centuries to standardize grammatical structure of urdu. Origin of Urdu is traced back to the mid of 10th and beginning of 11th century, but these were the formative years of Urdu language and no significant either literary or grammatical work was done during this period; in the initial years of its birth it was only used as a communication lingo. This hybrid language was called ‘ Hindvi ‘ or ‘ Dehlvi ‘ and was written in ‘ Devnagri ‘ Script. Later on in 14th century this language was introduced in Southern India (Hyderabad Deccan), here also the vocabulary of hindvi expanded many words and idioms of local languages were embedded. People start calling this new version of language spoken in Southern India as ‘ Deccani ‘ . The expansion of vocabulary continued and it changed from ‘ Deccani ‘ to ‘ Rekhta ‘ , and this Rekhta is believed to be the forerunner of modern Urdu language. The standardization of Rekhta(Urdu) took place in 16th and 17th century during the reign of Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb Alamgir, when synthetic character of Urdu acquired a complete form and greater content and power.
Like most other languages of the world, Urdu also started its literature through poetry.
Amir Khusro(1253-1325) a remarkable scholar of Persian and Arabic is considered to be the first ever poet of urdu language. He composed his poems in the then prevailing ‘ Hindvi ‘ language. Wali Deccani (1635-1707) and Quli Qutab Shah are believed to be the predecessors of Amir Khusro. Other eminent poets of this era were
Mir Taqi Mir(1727-1810)
Mushafi(1750-1785)
Mir Dard(1720-1785)
Qaim Chand Puri(1724-1794)
Haider Ali Atish(1778-1846)
Ustad Zauk
Mir Babr Ali Anis(1802-74)
Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Galib(1797-1869) is the greatest poet of urdu language .
He was a specialized Ghazal poet and his work is still popular among the masses.
Urdu poetry did not take his final form until 17th century when it was declared the official language of court. The 18th century saw a phenomenal rise in urdu literature especially urdu poetry. It was at this time when Urdu replaced Persian as lingua franca of the region.
Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is also highly esteemed among urdu poets because of his unique style. Amongst the poets of 19th century Allama Mohamad Iqbal(1877-1938) stands out, because he was the first one who introduced revolutionary concepts and ideas in his poetry. Faiz Ahmad Faiz is the most well-known and an distinguished poet of modern era. His work revolves around the concepts of communism and social justice. Beside others Sufi Saints have also contributed a lot in Urdu poetry.
The short story in Urdu began with Munshi Premchand ‘ s ‘ Soz-e-Vatan ‘ . Mohammad Hasan Askari, Sajjad Zaheer, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chandar, Saddat Hassan Manto, Ismat Chugtaii, Mumtaz Muffati, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and Ashafaq Ahmad are counted among leading lights of Urdu short story.
Novel writing in Urdu can be traced to Nazir Ahmed (1836-1912 CE) who composed several novels like Mirat-ul-Urus (1869 CE), Banat-un-Nash (1873 CE), Taubat-un-Nasuh (1877 CE) etc. Realism in urdu novel was introduced by PremChand. Mirza Mohamad Hadi Ruswa, Sajjad Haider Yaldrem, Niaz Fateh Puri, Abdul Haleem Sharar, Ratan Nath Sharshar are the pioneer Urdu novelists. Khadija mastur, Intizar Hussain, Bano Qudssiya, Aziz Ahmed are the urdu novel writers of modern times.
Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921) was the pioneer among the Urdu humorists and satirists. Majeed Lahori, Mehdi Ali Khan, Patras Bokhari (1898-1958), Mirza Farhatullah Beg, Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Azim Baig Chughtai, Ibn-e-Insha, Mushfiq Khwaja, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousifi, K.L.Kapur, Amjad Hussain, Mujtaba Hussain, Himayatullah and Talib Khundmeri are the other leading names in the field of humour
In the first half of the nineteenth century, drama started appearing at Urdu scene. The first dramatist is believed to be Amant Lucknowi, and his drama Indar Sabha is considered as the first Urdu drama. Urdu drama has made a lot of progress in recent years. Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Amjad Islam Amjad, Haseena Moin, Fatim Suriya Bajiha are the most distinguished play writers of present day.
The word ‘ Urdu ‘ is derived from Turkish word ‘ Ordu ‘ meaning ‘ Army Camp ‘ or ‘Lashkar ‘ . Exact origin of ‘ Urdu ‘ is some what difficult to trace; but many different theories have been developed to explain it. Mohammad Hussain Azad, an eminent Indian scholar, believes that Brij Bhasha, a dialect of Western Hindi, is the mother language of Urdu. Later on the invasion of Delhi by Muslims engrafted many Persian elements, which resulted in the creation of a new hybrid language called Urdu. Mehmud Sherani, on the contrary, maintains that Urdu language originated due to the interaction and intermixing of Muslim soldiers and locals (Hindus) after the conquest of Punjab and sindh by Mehmud of Ghazni. During this era many Punjabi words and idioms got interwoven in Hindi of Delhi and thus a new language came into being. But the most established theory relating the origination, evolution and development of Urdu language is that Urdu is a conglomeration of many different languages manly Arabic, Persian, Pashtu, Turkish, Hindi and some local dialects of India. Muslims ruled over India for about 1,000 years. Muslim army comprised of soldiers of different origins and nationalities speaking different languages. Interaction among these soldiers and with the locals led to the development of a new language, mutually understood by all. This new language named as ‘ Urdu ‘ proved to be a unifying communication tool between the Muslim soldiers during their conquest of ancient India (including Mayanmar). Languages do not originate overnight, they take centuries to evolve and develop, similarly it took about 5 to 6 centuries to standardize grammatical structure of urdu. Origin of Urdu is traced back to the mid of 10th and beginning of 11th century, but these were the formative years of Urdu language and no significant either literary or grammatical work was done during this period; in the initial years of its birth it was only used as a communication lingo. This hybrid language was called ‘ Hindvi ‘ or ‘ Dehlvi ‘ and was written in ‘ Devnagri ‘ Script. Later on in 14th century this language was introduced in Southern India (Hyderabad Deccan), here also the vocabulary of hindvi expanded many words and idioms of local languages were embedded. People start calling this new version of language spoken in Southern India as ‘ Deccani ‘ . The expansion of vocabulary continued and it changed from ‘ Deccani ‘ to ‘ Rekhta ‘ , and this Rekhta is believed to be the forerunner of modern Urdu language. The standardization of Rekhta(Urdu) took place in 16th and 17th century during the reign of Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb Alamgir, when synthetic character of Urdu acquired a complete form and greater content and power. Like most other languages of the world, Urdu also started its literature through poetry.
Amir Khusro(1253-1325) a remarkable scholar of Persian and Arabic is considered to be the first ever poet of urdu language. He composed his poems in the then prevailing ‘ Hindvi ‘ language. Wali Deccani (1635-1707) and Quli Qutab Shah are believed to be the predecessors of Amir Khusro. Other eminent poets of this era wereMir Taqi Mir(1727-1810)Mushafi(1750-1785)Mir Dard(1720-1785)Qaim Chand Puri(1724-1794)Haider Ali Atish(1778-1846)Ustad ZaukMir Babr Ali Anis(1802-74)Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Galib(1797-1869) is the greatest poet of urdu language . He was a specialized Ghazal poet and his work is still popular among the masses.Urdu poetry did not take his final form until 17th century when it was declared the official language of court.
The 18th century saw a phenomenal rise in urdu literature especially urdu poetry. It was at this time when Urdu replaced Persian as lingua franca of the region. Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is also highly esteemed among urdu poets because of his unique style. Amongst the poets of 19th century Allama Mohamad Iqbal(1877-1938) stands out, because he was the first one who introduced revolutionary concepts and ideas in his poetry. Faiz Ahmad Faiz is the most well-known and an distinguished poet of modern era. His work revolves around the concepts of communism and social justice. Beside others Sufi Saints have also contributed a lot in Urdu poetry. The short story in Urdu began with Munshi Premchand ‘ s ‘ Soz-e-Vatan ‘ . Mohammad Hasan Askari, Sajjad Zaheer, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chandar, Saddat Hassan Manto, Ismat Chugtaii, Mumtaz Muffati, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and Ashafaq Ahmad are counted among leading lights of Urdu short story. Novel writing in Urdu can be traced to Nazir Ahmed (1836-1912 CE) who composed several novels like Mirat-ul-Urus (1869 CE), Banat-un-Nash (1873 CE), Taubat-un-Nasuh (1877 CE) etc.
Realism in urdu novel was introduced by PremChand. Mirza Mohamad Hadi Ruswa, Sajjad Haider Yaldrem, Niaz Fateh Puri, Abdul Haleem Sharar, Ratan Nath Sharshar are the pioneer Urdu novelists. Khadija mastur, Intizar Hussain, Bano Qudssiya, Aziz Ahmed are the urdu novel writers of modern times. Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921) was the pioneer among the Urdu humorists and satirists. Majeed Lahori, Mehdi Ali Khan, Patras Bokhari (1898-1958), Mirza Farhatullah Beg, Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Azim Baig Chughtai, Ibn-e-Insha, Mushfiq Khwaja, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousifi, K.L.Kapur, Amjad Hussain, Mujtaba Hussain, Himayatullah and Talib Khundmeri are the other leading names in the field of humour In the first half of the nineteenth century, drama started appearing at Urdu scene. The first dramatist is believed to be Amant Lucknowi, and his drama Indar Sabha is considered as the first Urdu drama. Urdu drama has made a lot of progress in recent years. Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Amjad Islam Amjad, Haseena Moin, Fatim Suriya Bajiha are the most distinguished play writers of present day.
