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.