A Brief History Of Urdu At A Glance

The true origins of Urdu language date back to as far as 900 years ago in the history, at a time when Muslim army of Turkish, Arabic and Persian descent was on the march in the South East Asian region of Subcontinent (now majorly divided into two independent states, i.e. India and Pakistan). 

It basically developed and progressed as a medium of communication amongst people from different descents present in that army. The word “Urdu” itself is derived from a Turkish word “Ordu”, whose meanings are described as “an army”, “a legion”, or “a camp”. This gives the idea of the basic origins of this language quite expressively. 

Ever since then, it has been able to sustain and prosper tackling all the hardships that came across its treacherous journey that is almost touching a whole millennium.

It was the Mughal Era that gave Urdu the real boost in its evolution and progress. It was adopted as the language of courts in Mughal Era alongside Persian. It made a huge progress towards its evolution during that period of time, but had to face great set back spanning to almost a whole century, with the advent of English colonialism in this region.

Now, it holds the honor of being the national language of Pakistan, in addition to being a registered language in India as well, and the number of Urdu speaking population lies between 60 to 70 million all across the globe; most importantly, this number is on constant rise with people all across the globe seeking to learn it.

Different Popular Genres Of Urdu Poetry

Poetry sets ablaze the passion of masses about the literary treasure of any language. Urdu poetry is no exception. It serves as a great medium of expression of diverse ideas in catchy and attractive forms. It has played a great role in evolution of Urdu literature and its propagation to huge masses all across the globe.

It offers quite a diverse canvas for expressing one’s deep emotions. The main forms of expression used by Urdu poetry include ghazal, qasida, marsia, nazam, masnavi, tazkira, etc. Given below is the basic information about each one of them to give you an idea about what they look like.

Nazm:                  

Nazm constitutes major part of Urdu poetry, both volume and impact wise. It has travelled far across the tides of time right from the early pros like Nazeer Akbarabadi, Firaq, Josh, Iqbal, Hali to the contemporary poets with the likes of Paigham Afaqui, Farhat Ehsas, Zahida Zaidi, Kishwar Naheed etc. The poets of every era have bestowed “nazm” a new facet and new meaning, contributing greatly in its evolution.

Ghazal:                

Ghazal genre can be referred as the heart and soul of Urdu poetry without any exaggeration. It has been able to touch the hearts and souls of masses like none other. Right from the classic expertise of Mir, Ghalib, Dard, etc to the likes of Faiz, Faraz, Sahir Ludhyanvi, every single person has added a new touch to this effective medium of expression for Urdu poetry.

Qasida:                

An ode; mostly used to express gratitude of the poet for rulers, kings, warriors or other note worthy dignitaries.  

Marsia:                

It is used to express the grief and concern about the death of Hassan (A.S) and Hussain (A.S), and their families.

Literary Contributions Of Manto For Urdu Language

Literature of a language serves as a great source of association and propagation of that particular language. Same is the case with Urdu literature. It has taken quite a prominent place amongst the literary treasures of various languages all across the world, courtesy to huge contributions made by a number of enthusiasts of this language over the relatively short but vibrant history of this language.

List of prominent writers of Urdu is practically incomplete without mentioning the exalted efforts of Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955). His ideology might be debatable but no serious critic of the language can doubt the worth and significance of literary contributions of this great person.

In most of the cases, fame is always accompanied by controversy. Same is the situation in case of Manto. All through his life, he had been as famous as he had been notorious, but his fame definitely overshadowed his notoriety soon after he departed the world, and is greatly respected by a staggering majority of Urdu language and literature lovers.

His expertise were not confined to writing words only, rather he was quite a versatile personality and held quite a prominent position amongst radio and movie script writers, in addition to being a quite a distinct journalist.

Manto’s contribution to Urdu literature in his very short life time included 22 collections of short stories, a novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections on essays, as well as some personal sketches to glorify the effectiveness of this language’s literary grounds.

He was a true and brave soul, courageous enough to raise a voice on issues that were considered quite taboo at that time and society, as a result of which he faced half a dozen trials for charges of obscenity, though never once convicted.

Contribution Of Ghazal In Urdu Poetry

Poetry is a medium that serves to be the main cause of attraction of masses towards the literary artifacts confined in the literary treasure of any language; though, there is no denying the importance of prose itself. But, for one reason or another, poetry seems to touch eht heart and soul of a person like no other genre of literature can. Same is the case with Urdu poetry.

There are many popular forms of expression in Urdu poetry like nazm, marsia, misnavi, musaddas, etc, but nothing beats the popularity and mass acceptability of “ghazal”; a medium used to express one’s views in this language right from the time of its inception.

Ghazal dominates the popularity graph in this case. It is basically an ode whose literal meaning is “to engage in conversation with the loved one”. The lingual experts believe that this word is originated from the Arabic word “Ghizaal”, equivalent to “gazelle” in English language. It is a combination of couplets ranging from minimum of 5 to maximum of 25 (by new standards).

A “couplet” in terms of Urdu language and poetry is referred as “sher”. For Ghazal, a  couplet consists of two lines; first one being called “misra-e-oola” and the second line is called as “misra-e-sani”.

The special aspect of ghazal is that it is not confined to one particular subject, and is of very diverse nature. Every couplet has a meaning of its own that is totally understandable even if it is taken as solitary.  The first two rhyming lines of Urdu Ghazal are referred as “matla” and the last two lines are termed as “makta”. They also include “pen name” of the poet.

Thus it is a genre that has contributed greatly in exalting Urdu poetry to the status that it enjoys today.

Akbar The Great Mughal Emperor (part-2)

He was a spiritual person, and had a deep faith on religion Islam. He organized mehfils in his court for the Urdu poets and intellectuals. He brought up in a Muslim family and followed the Islamic rules in throughout his life. He was very flexible towards other religions and also he did not force religion on non-Muslims. He also respected their religions and often organized religious sessions and debates with Hindu community. He also established a religious group with the name of “Din-e-Ilahi”.

He faced 1^st big conquest in Malwa in1562. He occupied on “Gonds” also with the help of his army and governor of Allahabad Asaf khan. Who fought with the queen of  Gonds “Rani Durgavati”. After occupying on Malwa Asaf khan took control on Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bengal.

 He conquered the Chittor in 1968 which was ruled by the Maharana Uday Singh. It was his major victory.

Uday Singh left the Chittor land after putting two soldiers to save it. Army of Akbar destroyed their forts of Chittor. His soldiers killed about 30000 men there. They refused to accept Mughal kingdom in Chittor. When akbar occupied on Chittor he putt two stone statues of those two soldiers Jaimal and Patta in Agra, who were appointed to save Chittor. In Chittor two tribes of Rajput “Sisodiyas” and “Hadas” were against to Mughal kingdom.

They were strongly against Akbar’s realm even after he had conquered on Rajput empire. Maharana Pratap was their commander then. In 1952 he occupied on Ahmadabad. It is very rich land with respect to fertile soils and crafts. His forces took care a lot of taxation system ,military and political system, that’s why he called a successful king of that land.

He was broad minded and had friendly relationship with other communities like Hindu, Christian, and Muslims. Abul Fazal wrote two books AkbarNama and Ain-I-Akbari on the life history of Mughal king Akbar. He made many institutes for education, and many Urdu poets, writers; scholars belonged to his time of ruling. No doubt Mughal family gave birth to Urdu.

People remember him for his good deeds and bravery .