Urdu Language Books

[Giorgina Makara]

Urdudeveloped during the 13th century, although the name "Urdu" did not exist at the time for the language. Amir Khusrau, who lived in the thirteenth century, wrote and gave shape to the Rekhta dialect (The Persianized combination of Hindavi), which was the early form of Modern Standard Urdu. He was thus called, the "father of Urdu literature".[1] The continuing traditions of Islam and patronizations of foreign culture centuries earlier by Muslim rulers, usually of Turkic or Afghan descent, marked their influence on the Urdu language given that both cultural heritages were strongly present throughout Urdu territory. The Urdu language, with a vocabulary almost evenly split between Sanskrit-derived Prakrit and Arabo-Persian words, was a reflection of this cultural amalgamation.

Literary composition in Urdu first started in the Deccan in the 14th century. An early form of Urdu was first introduced in the Deccan by the soldiers of Alauddin Khalji who raided the Deccan from 1294 to 1311. In 1326, Muhammad bin Tughluq shifted his capital from Delhi to the Deccan and in 1347 Zafar Khan, his governor in the Deccan, declared independence establishing the Bahmani Sultanate and took the title of Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah.[2] The Bahmani sultans cultivated the use of Urdu in the kingdom as opposed to Persian which was the court language of the Delhi Sultanate. This dialect, which up to 1375 had no difference with Delhi Urdu, was influenced by local languages like Gujarati and Marathi came to be known as Dakhini. The works composed during this period are mostly Dakhini prose and poetry on religious themes.[3]

Important writers of this period include Bande Nawaz whose Miraj ul Asiquin, a Sufi tract is one of the earliest Urdu prose.[4] Other important writers included Shah Miranji and his son Shah Buran.[5]

Ibrahim Adil Shah II was another royal poet who was also a patron of art and literature.[9] His Kitab-e-Navras (Book of Nine Rasas) in Dakhani is a collection of 59 poems and 17 couplets. Other important poets included Rustami, Nusrati, and Mirza.[10]

During the nineteenth century, the centre of Urdu literature shifted from Delhi as most literary men migrated to other parts of India like Hyderabad, Patna, and Lucknow. The Lucknow court emerged as the centre of Urdu poetry as it received poets from Delhi with much enthusiasm.[17] Chief among these poets were Khaliq, Zamir, Aatish, and Nasikh.[18] Other poets included Anis and Dabir.[19]

The second quarter of the nineteenth century saw the revival of Urdu poetry in Delhi in the Mughal court. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor, was himself a poet and a patron of poetry.[20] Chief poets who flourished under his patronage includes Zauq, Ghalib, Azurda, and Momin.[21]

The fall of the Mughal empire and kingdom of Awadh after the Rebellion of 1857 and the contact with English language started a new movement in Urdu literature. The flag bearers of this new movement were Syed Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Husain Azad, and Altaf Hussain Hali.[23] This period saw the rise of prose, criticism, and drama in Urdu literature. Writers and poets began to explore new subjects and themes and experiment with new forms.[24]

Until the nineteenth century, Persian was the official language of the court and culture and all correspondence was carried out in Persian.[29] The development of Urdu prose for practical purposes can be traced back to the establishment of the Fort William College in Calcutta in 1800 which was founded to instruct British officers of the East India Company in Indian vernacular languages.[30] John Gilchrist, the head of the college, was author of many Hindustani works such as Oriental Linguist, an Introduction to the Language of Hindustani and Hindustani Grammar. He gathered a group of Indian scholars at the college who went on to write books for the use of fresh officers and also created a standard prose for Urdu and Hindi.[31] The chief among these scholars were Mir Amman Dehelvi, Mir Sher Ali Jaafri, Mir Bahadur Ali Husaini, Sayid Haidar Bakhsh, Kazim Ali Jawan, Nihalchand, Hafizuddin Ahmad, Ikram Ali Khan, Lallujilal, Beni Narayan, and Mirza Ali Lutf.[31]

Syed Ahmed Khan, the leading figure of the Aligarh Movement, was also a voracious writer and journalist who wrote various books from theological to historical subjects. His major theological work, Al-Khutbat al-Ahmadiya fi'l Arab wa'I Sirat al-Muhammadiya (A Series of Essays on the Life of Muhammad and Subjects Subsidiary Therein), was published in 1876. He made significant contributions to Urdu journalism through his journals and periodicals, Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq and the Aligarh Institute Gazette.[32]

The Aligarh movement produced a band of literary enthusiasts who had a far-reaching influence on Urdu literature. The chief among them were Shibli Nomani and Zakaullah Dehlvi who wrote on history, Chiragh Ali, Mohsin-ul-Mulk, and Waqar-ul-Mulk who wrote on literature.[33]

Shibli Nomani is regarded as the father of modern history in Urdu.[34] He wrote several biographical and historical books such as Sirat-un-Nabi, Sirat an-Nu'man, Al-Farooq, Al-Ma'mun, Al-Ghazali, (a biography of Imam Al-Ghazali), Mawlana Rumi (a biography of Mawlana Rumi), and Aurangzeb Alamgir Par Ek Nazar, a book on the life of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.[35] He also wrote the first travelogue in Urdu, Safar Nama e Rome-o-Misr-o-Sham, which is an account of his travels abroad.[35]

Apart from poetry, Altaf Hussain Hali also made significant contributions to Urdu prose. Hayat-i Saadi, a biography of Saadi, Hayat-i Javed, a biography of Syed Ahmad Khan, and Yadgar-e-Ghalib, a biography and criticism on Ghalib, are some of his most important works in prose.[36]

In 1869, Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi published Mirat-ul-Uroos, the first original novel in Urdu. It served as Nazir's form of conduct literature about marriage. He also wrote Binat-un-Nash and Toba tun Nasoh during this period, both of which are conduct books designed to instill moral virtues.[35]

Muhammad Husain Azad laid the foundation of historical novels in Urdu with Qisas ul-hind and Darbār-e akbarī.[35] His Aab-e hayat, which is a history of Urdu poetry from Wali to Ghalib, is regarded as the first chronological history of Urdu poetry.[37][35]

Ratan Nath Dhar Sarshar introduced proper fiction and touch of realism in Urdu novels with his serialised novel Fasana-e-Azad which was influenced by Don Quixote. His other notable novels are Sair-i-Kohsar and Jam-i-Sarshar. He also wrote articles and short stories for the humorous journal, Awadh Punch.[38]

Drama in Urdu was introduced in the 19th century through the production of Inder Sabha written by Agha Hasan Amanat, and first staged in 1853. It was a musical comedy with a thin plot line and was modelled after the European opera.[40]

Premchand emerged on the literary scene in the early 1890s and soon became probably the most significant writer and novelist in the history of Urdu literature.[citation needed] He also wrote in Hindi.[41] He wrote on the themes of religious and social reforms in Isare-e-Muabid and Hum Khurma-O Hum Swab, on the predicament of a prostitute in Bazaar-e-Husn, the problems of the farmers in Gosha-e Aafiat, and the problems of the middle class and women in Nirmala.[42] Premchand was also the first writer to introduce European-style short stories in Urdu.[43] His first collection of short stories, Soz-e- Watan, published in 1907, was banned by the British government.[39]

In the 1930s, the short story became the leading prose genre in Urdu due to the influx of western influences especially the English, French, and Russian.[45] The publication of Angarey, a short story collection by Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jahan, Mahmud-uz-Zafar, and Ahmed Ali in 1932 marked the beginning of the Progressive Writers' Movement that went on to substantially influence the content of Urdu literature for the next two decades.[46]

Ismat Chughtai was an important progressive novelist and short story writer who wrote extensively on femininity. Her major works include the collection of short stories Kaliyan and Chotein. She is best remembered for her short story Lihaaf published in 1942.[47]

Amir Khusrau 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 Old Hindi during the late 13th century). He is credited with the systematization of northern Indian classical music, including Hindustani music, and he wrote works both in Persian and Hindavi. While the couplets that come down from him are representative of a latter-Prakrit Hindi bereft of Arabo-Persian vocabulary, his influence on court viziers and writers must have been transcendental, for a century after his death Quli Qutub Shah was speaking a language that might be considered to be Urdu. Sultan Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah was a scholar in Persian and Arabic. He also wrote poetry in Telugu language, Persian language and Urdu language. His poetry has been compiled into Dewan or volume entitled "Kulliyat-e-Quli Qutub Shah." Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah had the distinction of being the first Saheb-e-dewan Urdu poet and is credited with introducing a new sensibility into prevailing genres of Persian/Urdu poetry. It is said that the Urdu language acquired the status of a literary language due to his contributions. He died in the year 1611.[50]

Sayyid Shamsullah Qadri is considered as the first researcher of Deccaniyat.[51] some of the works of Allama Hakeem Sayyid Shamsullah Qadri are Salateen e Muabber 1929,[52] Urdu-i-qadim 1930,[53] Tareekh E Maleebaar,[54] Mowarrikheen E Hind,[55] Tahfat al Mujahidin 1931,[56] Imadiya,[57] Nizam Ut Tawareekh,[58] Tareekh Zuban Urdu-Urdu-E-Qadeem,[59] Tareekh Zuban Urdu Al Musamma Ba Urdu-E-Qadeem,[60][61] Tareekh Zuban Urdu Yaani Urdu-E-Qadeem,[62] Tarikh Vol III,[63] Asaarul Karaam,[64] Tarikh[65] Shijrah Asifiya,[66] Ahleyaar,[67] Pracina malabar[68]

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