Urdu literature
Urdu literature comprises the literary works, written in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ghazal and nazm, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including the short story, or afsana. Urdu literature is popular mostly in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language, and in India, where it is an Eighth Schedule language.
Origin
Urdu developed during the 12th to 13th centuries, 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, which was the early form of Modern Standard Urdu. He was thus called, the "father of Urdu literature". 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.Religious period (1350–1590)
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. 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 and came to be known as Dakhini. The works composed during this period are mostly Dakhini prose and poetry on religious themes.Important writers of this period include Bande Nawaz whose Miraj ul Asiquin, a Sufi tract, is one of the earliest Urdu prose. Other important writers included Shah Miranji and his son Shah Buran.
Urdu in the Deccan (1590–1730)
Qutub Shahi poets (1590–1687)
, the fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golkonda and founder of the city of Hyderabad, was a royal poet and prolific writer in Persian and Dakhini. Other poets included Wajhi and Gavvasi. In 1655, Ibn e Nishati wrote Phul ban, a romance in 1300 lines. Qissa o bairam e Gul andman written by Tab’i is an important work of the period. Written in 1670, it is nearly 2700 lines long.Adil Shahi poets (1590–1688)
was another royal poet who was also a patron of art and literature. His Kitab-e-Navras in Dakhani is a collection of 59 poems and 17 couplets. Other important poets included Rustami, Nusrati, and Mirza.Urdu in Deccan under Mughal Rule (1687–1730)
The most important Urdu writer of this period was Wali Mohammed Wali.18th century
First Urdu period in Delhi (1730–1830)
In the 18th century, the three most important forms of Urdu poetry were ghazal, the qasida, and the masnavi. Shaikh Zahuruddin Hatim was an important poet in Delhi during this period. His major works include two volumes of poetry, Diwan and Diwanzada. Urdu poetry was dominated by Mazhar, Sauda, Mir, and Dard, who later came to be known as “the Four Pillars of Urdu Poetry”. Another major figure was Mir Hasan, known for his masnavis, the most famous being Sihar-ul-Bayan, often referred to as Masnavi e Mir Hasan.Other important poets of this period include Mas'hafi, Insha and Nazeer.
19th century
Poetry
Urdu poetry in Lucknow
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. Chief among these poets were Khaliq, Zamir, Aatish, and Nasikh. Other poets included Anis and Dabir.Second Urdu period in Delhi
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. Chief poets who flourished under his patronage includes Zauq, Ghalib, Azurda, and Momin.Some of Momin's pupils in poetry such as Shefta and Mir Hussain Taskin became distinguished poets themselves.
New movement
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. 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.Altaf Hussain Hali was a prolific poet who left a vast amount of work behind. His major poetic works include Masnavis, Musaddas e Hali, Shikwa e Hind, and Qasida e Ghyasia. He also wrote marsias or elegies on the deaths of Ghalib, Hakim Mahmud Khan, and Sir Syed.
Suroor Jahanabadi was another exponent of the new movement in Urdu poetry. He wrote patriotic poems like Khak-i-Watan, Urus-i-Hubbi-Watan, and Madar-i-Hind. His historical and religious poems include Padmani, Padmani-ki-Chita, and Sitaji-ki-Giria-o-Zari.
Prose
, better known for his poetry, also wrote a considerable amount of Urdu prose during his lifetime which includes his collection of letters and three short pamphlets entitled Lataif-i-Ghalib, Tegh-i-Tez, and Nama-i-Ghalib. His letters, autobiographical in nature, were collected and published in two volumes as Urdu-i-Mualla and Ud-i-Hindi.Fort William College writers
Until the nineteenth century, Persian was the official language of the court and culture and all correspondence was carried out in Persian. 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. 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. 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.Aligarh movement
, 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, was published in 1876. He made significant contributions to Urdu journalism through his journals and periodicals, Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq and the Aligarh Institute Gazette.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.
Shibli Nomani is regarded as the father of modern history in Urdu. He wrote several biographical and historical books such as Sirat-un-Nabi, Sirat an-Nu'man, Al-Farooq, Al-Ma'mun, Al-Ghazali,, Mawlana Rumi, and Aurangzeb Alamgir Par Ek Nazar, a book on the life of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. He also wrote the first travelogue in Urdu, Safar Nama e Rome-o-Misr-o-Sham, which is an account of his travels abroad.
Tarikh-e-Hindustan, a fourteen-volume compilation of Indian history in Urdu written by Zakaullah Dehlvi, was a monumental achievement of this period.
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.
Urdu novel
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.Muhammad Husain Azad laid the foundation of historical novels in Urdu with Qisas ul-hind and Darbār-e akbarī. 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.
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.
Influenced by the historical romances of Walter Scott, Abdul Halim Sharar introduced historical elements in his own works such as Malikul Azia Vārjina.
Mirza Hadi Ruswa was a poet and writer, best remembered for his novel Umrao Jaan Ada, published at the end of the nineteenth century.