Urdu literature

History of modern literature
Modern Asian literature
Arabic literature Bengali literature Japanese literature Korean literature Vietnamese literature

Urdu literature has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. While it tends to be heavily dominated by poetry, the range of expression achieved in the voluminous library of a few major verse forms, especially the ghazal and nazm, has led to its continued development and expansion into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana. It is today most popular in the countries of India and Pakistan and is finding interest in foreign countries primarily through South Asians.

The beginnings

Urdu literature may be said to find its provenance some time around the 14th century in Mughal India amongst the sophisticated gentry of Persian courts. The presence of the Muslim gentry in a largely Hindu India, while clearly acknowledged, did not so nearly dominate the consciousness of the Urdu poet as much as did the continuing traditions of Islam and Persia. The very color of the Urdu language, with a vocabulary almost evenly split between Sanskrit-derived Prakrit and Arabo-Persian words, was a reflection of the newness of cultural amalgamation and yet the insistence on retaining what was best and most beautiful about the lands of Afghanistan and Persia.

A man who exercised great influence on the initial growth of not only Urdu literature, but the language itself (which only truly took shape as distinguished from both Persian and proto-Hindi around the 14th century) was the famous Amir Khusro. Credited, indeed, with the very systematization of northern Indian classical music, known as Hindustani, he wrote works in both Persian and Hindavi, frequently engaging in ingenious mixes of the two. While the couplets that come down from him in are representative of a latter-Prakrit Hindi bereft of Arabo-Persian vocabulary, his influence on court viziers and writers must have been mighty, for but a century after his passing Quli Qutub Shah was seen to take to a language that may be safely said to be Urdu.

Poetry and Prose

Urdu literature was generally composed more of poetry than of prose. The prose component of Urdu literature was mainly restricted to the ancient form of long-epic stories called Daastaan (داستان). These long-epic stories would deal with magical and otherwise fantastic creatures and events in a very complicated plot.

Urdu poetry started after the period mentioned earlier in the Deccan (South India). With time the usage of Urdu for poetry spread to Northern India. The most well developed vessel of poetry has turned out to be the Ghazal which has by far exceeded all other forms of Urdu poetry by its quality and quantity within the cosmos of Urdu.

The 18th Century

The names of some well known Urdu Poets from this era would be Faaiz Dehlvi, Khan Arzu, Mubarak Abru, Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Saud and Mir Dard.

Later writers have come to identify this period as one of comparative political instability, economic depression and social devolution. Hence the literature of this period is either generally in keeping with the epicurian attitude of people trying to find solace in the arms of literature. Or of those horrified by the inertia of the changes and their inability to affect change.

References

Muhammad Husain Azad: Ab-e hayat (Lahore: Naval Kishor Gais Printing Wrks) 1907 [in Urdu]; (Delhi: Oxford University Press) 2001 [In English translation]
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi: Early Urdu Literary Culture and History (Delhi: Oxford University Press) 2001
M.A.R. Habib: An Anthology of Modern Urdu Poetry in English translation with Urdu text. Modern Language Association (2003). ISBN 0873527976
Alamgir Hashmi, The Worlds of Muslim Imagination (1986) ISBN 0-00-500407-1.
Muhammad Sadiq, A History of Urdu Literature (1984).
The Annual of Urdu Studies, 1981-.

External links

Culturopedia: Indian Literature - Urdu literature
Seasons: Indian Literature - Urdu literature
Columbia University: Urdu Language Sources
Urdu literature Site: One of the Largest Site of اردو Urdu literature.
History of Urdu Ghazal- اردو غزل کی عہد بہ عہد ترقی

For the first part of this article, see .

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Urdu}}}
Writing system: Urdu alphabet (Nasta'liq script)
Official status
Official language of: Pakistan ;
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Urdu poetry (Urdu: اردو شاعری, Urdu Shayari) is one of the most dominant and prominent poetries of times and has many different colours & types.
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In poetry, the ghazal (Persian: غزل; Turkish gazel
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A Nazm (Urdu: نظم ) is an Urdu poetic form that is normally written in rhymed verse.

YAAD

By: Fazil Jamili

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Tum rotee thee jaisey baarish, woh bhi moosla dhaar
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Motto
اتحاد، تنظيم، يقين محکم
Ittehad, Tanzim, Yaqeen-e-Muhkam (Urdu)
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South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is a southern geopolitical region of the Asian continent comprising territories on and in proximity to the Indian subcontinent. It is surrounded by (from west to east) Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeastern Asia.
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The Mughal Empire (Persian: سلطنت مغولی هند,
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50-60 million
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Regions with significant populations
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[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html#People]
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Hindu ( pronunciation (help info ) , Devanagari: हिन्दु), as per modern definition, is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, and the
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BCE Zayandeh River Civilization Sialk civilization 7500–1000 Jiroft civilization (Aratta) Proto-Elamite civilization Bactria-Margiana Complex Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Kingdom of Mannai Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire Seleucid Empire Greco-Bactrian
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Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत (from pra-kṛti प्रकृति)
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Pronunciation: /alˌʕa.raˈbij.ja/
Spoken in: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman,
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fɒːɾˈsiː in Perso-Arabic script (Nasta`liq style):
Pronunciation: [fɒːɾˈsiː]
Spoken in: Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and areas of Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
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Writing system: Devanagari script
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Official language of: India
Fiji (as Hindustani)
Regulated by: Central Hindi Directorate (only in India)^[1]
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ISO 639-1: hi
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Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow (Persian: ابوالحسن یمین‌الدین خسرو
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Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)}}}
Writing system: Devanagari script,
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Official language of: Fiji,
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The history of Hindi, a major language of India. Hindi started to emerge as Apabhramsha in the 7th century and by the 10 century became stable. Several have been used in literature. Braj was the popular literary dialect until it was replaced by khari boli in the 19th century.
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