The same Khari Boli that gave rise
to Hindi also gave rise to Urdu around the 11th century AD. The Western
Sauraseni Apabhramsa is said to be the source of the grammatical structure of
Urdu though the vocabulary of the language, its idioms and literary traditions
owe heavily to Turkish and Persian.
The term Urdu literally means
‘camp’. Amir Khusrau was the first to employ the language for literary purpose.
However it was in the Deccan, in the Bahmani, Golconda and Bijapur courts, that
it first achieved literary status.
Urdu poetry has its literary
genres—the masnavi, a long amorous or mystical narrative poem; qasida,
something like an ode, a panegyric; ghazal, lyrical poem composed of
self-contained couplets with a single metre and mood; marsia (elegies); rekhtis
and nazm.
Urdu writing in its various
primitive forms can be traced to Muhammad Urfi, Amir Khusro (1259-1325) and
Kwaja Muhammad Husaini (1318-1422). The earliest writings in Urdu are in the
Dakhni (Deccan) dialect. The Sufi saints were the earliest promoters of the
Dakhni Urdu. Sufi-saint Hazrat Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesudaraz is considered to be
the first prose writer of Dakhni Urdu (Merajul Ashiqin and Tilawatul Wajud are
attributed to him).
The first literary work in Urdu is
said to have been written by Bidar poet Fakhruddin Nizami (fifteenth century).
Kamal Khan Rustami (Khawar Nama) and Nusrati (Gulshan-e-Ishq, Ali Nama and
Tarikh-e-Iskandari) were two great poets of Bijapur. Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah,
the Golconda king, wrote poetry focused on love, nature and social life.
Writers of Dakhni Urdu included Shah
Miranji Shamsul Ushaq (Khush Nama and Khush Naghz), Shah Burhanuddin Janam,
Mullah Wajhi (Qutb Mushtari and Sabras) Ibn-e-Nishati (Phul Ban) and Tabai
(Bhahram-O-Guldandam) Wajhi’s Sabras is considered to be a masterpiece of great
literary and philosophical merit.
Vali Mohammed or Vali Dakhni (Diwan)
was one of the most prolific Dakhni poets who developed the form of the ghazal.
His collection of ghazals and other poetic genres influenced the poets of
Delhi.
The medieval Urdu poetry grew under
the shadow of Persian poetry. Sirajuddin Ali Khan Arzu and Shaikh Sadullah
Gulshan were the earliest promoters of Urdu in North India. By the early
eighteenth century, a more sophisticated North Indian variation of the Urdu
language began to evolve thanks to the writings of Shaikh Zahooruddin Hatim,
Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan, Khwaja Mir Dard, Mir Taqi Mir, Mir Hasan and Mohammed
Rafi Sauda.
Sauda has been described as the
foremost satirist of Urdu literature during this century (Shahr Ashob and
Qasida Tazheek-e-Rozgar). Mir Hassan’s mathnavi Sihr- ul-Bayan and Mir Taqi
Mir’s mathnavi provided a distinct Indian touch to the language. Mir’s works,
apart from his six diwans include Nikat-ush-Shora (Tazkira) and Zikr-se-Mir
(autobiography).
Shaik Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi, Insha
Allah Khan (Darya- e-Latafat and Rani Ketaki), Khwaja Haider Ali Atish, Daya
Shankar Naseem (mathnavi: Gulzare-e-Naseem), Nawab Mirza Shauq (Bahr-e-Ishq,
Zahr-e-Ishq and Lazzat-e-Ishq) and Shaik Imam Bakhsh Nasikh were the early
poets of Lucknow Mir Babar Ali Anees (1802-1874) wrote beautiful marsiyas.
Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar,
his verse typified by difficult rhymes, word play and use of idiomatic language
authored four voluminous diwans. Shaik Ibrahim Zauq is considered the most
outstanding composer of qasidas (panegyrics), next to Sauda.
Hakim Momin Khan Momin wrote ghazals
for expressing emotions of love. Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869),
considered as one of the greatest of the Urdu poets, is famous for his
originality. Ghalib brought in a renaissance in Urdu poetry. In the post-Ghalib
period, Dagh emerged as a distinct poet. He used purity of idiom and simplicity
of language and thought.
Modern Urdu literature covers the
time from the last quarter of the 19th century to the present day. Altaf
Hussain Hali (Diwan-e-Hali, Madd-o- jazr-e-lslam or Musaddas-e-Hali in 1879,
Shakwa-e-Hind in 1887, Munajat-e-Beva in 1886 and Chup ki Dad in 1905) is
considered the actual innovator of the modern spirit in Urdu poetry.
Hali was the pioneer of modern
criticism, his Muqaddama-e-Sher-o-Shaeri being the foundation stone of Urdu
criticism. Shibli Nomani is considered as the father of modern history in Urdu
(Seerat-un-Noman in 1892 and Al Faruq in 1899).
Mohammed Hussain Azad laid the
foundation of the modern verse in Urdu. Notable poets of the nineteenth-
twentieth century’s include Syyid Akbar Husain Akbar Allahabadi, famous for his
extempore composition of satiric and comic verses; Mohammed Iqbal; and Hasrat
Mohani. Iqbal’s poetry underwent several phases of evolution from Romanticism
to Indian nationalism and finally to pan-Islamism.
The contributions of poets like Fani
Badayuni, Shad Azimabadi, Asghar Gondavi, Jigar Moradabadi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz,
Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh
Sultanpuri, and Ibn-e-Insha have taken Urdu poetry to great heights.
Urdu prose was slow to develop and
it was Syed Ahmad Khan who set the style with a plain, matter-of-fact prose.
The tradition was carried on by talented writers like Krishan Chander, Sajjad
Zaheer, K.A. Abbas and Ismat Chugtai.
The field of fiction projects names
like Ruswa (Umra Jan Ada) and Premchand. The short story in Urdu began with Munshi
Premchand’s Soz-e-Vatan (1908). Premchand’s short stories cover nearly a dozen
volumes. Mohammed Hussan Askari and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas are counted among the
leading lights of the Urdu short story.
The Progressive Movement in Urdu
fiction gained momentum under Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Mahmood-uz-Zafar and
Rasheed Jahan. Urdu writers like Rajender Singh Bedi and Krishn Chander showed
commitment to the Marxist philosophy in their writings.
Manto, Ismat Chughtai and Mumtaz
Mufti were Urdu writers who concentrated on the ‘psychological story’ in
contrast to the ‘sociological story’ of Bedi and Krishn Chander. Ahmad Nadeem
Qasmi (Alhamd-o-Lillah, Savab, Nasib) is a noted name in Urdu short story.
In the post-1936 period, Intezar
Hussain, Anwar Sajjad, Balraj Mainra, Surender Parkash and Qurratul-ain Haider
(Sitaroun Se Aage, Mere Sanam Khane) emerged as leading lights of Urdu short
story. Other leading fiction writers include Jeelani Bano, Iqbal Mateen, Awaz
Sayeed, Kadeer Zaman and Mazhr-uz-Zaman.
Novel writing in Urdu can be traced
to the nineteenth- twentieth century’s, particularly the works of Nazir
Ahmed
(1836 – 1912), composer of Mirat-ul-Urus (1869), Banat-un-Nash (1873),
Taubat-un-Nasuh (1877), and others. Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar Fasana-e-Azad, Abdul
Halim Sharar Badr-un-Nisa Ki Musibat and Agha Sadiq ki Shadi, Mirza Muhammed
Hadi Ruswa’s Umrao Jan Ada (1899) are some of the great novels and novelettes
written during the period.
Niaz Fatehpuri (1887-1966) and Qazi
Abdul Gaffar (1862-1956) were the other eminent early romantic novelists in the
language. However, it was Premchand (1880-1936) who tried to introduce the
trend of realism in Urdu novel, in Bazare-e-Husn (1917), Gosha-e-Afiat,
Chaugan-e-Hasti, Maidan-e-Amal and Godan. Premchand’s realism was further
strengthened by the writers of the Indian Progressive Writers’ Association like
Sajjad Zaheer, Krishn Chander and Ismat Chughtai.
Krishn Chander’s Jab Khet Jage
(1952), Ek Gadhe Ki Sarguzasht (1957) and Shikast are considered among the
outstanding novels in Urdu literature. Ismat Chughtai’s novel Terhi Lakir
(1947) and Qurratul-ain Haider’s novel Aag Ka Darya are considered as important
works in the history of Urdu novel.
Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Aziz Ahmed,
Balwant Singh, Khadija Mastur, Intezar Hussain are the other important writers
in Urdu in contemporary times.
Urdu in the modern era has not been
confined to only Muslim writers. Several writers from other religions have also
written in Urdu, like Munshi Premchand, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Pandit Ratan Nath
Sarshar (Fasana-e-Azad), Brij Narain Chakbast, Upendar Nath Ashk, Jagan Nath
Azad, Jogender Pal, Balraj Komal and Kumar Pashi.
Prof. Hafiz Mohammed Sheerani
(1888-1945) devoted long years to the field of Urdu literary criticism. Shaikh
Mohammed Ikram Sayyid Ihtesham Hussain, Mohammed Hasan Askari, Ale-Ahmed
Suroor, Mumtaz Husain, Masud Husain, Shams-ur-Rahman Faruqi, Gopichand Narang,
Mughni Tabassum are other noted literary critics.
Farhang-e-Asifya was the first Urdu
dictionary based on principles of the modern lexicography. It was produced in
1892 by Maulana Sayyid Ahmed Dehlvi.
Jnanpith Award winners for Urdu
writing are Firaq Gorakhpuri (Gul-e-Nagma) and Qurratul-ain-Haidar (Aag ki
Darya, Pathar ki Awaz). Urdu, incidentally, is written in the Persian-Arabic
script as well as the Devanagari script.
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