Persian and Urdu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Persian language deeply influenced and played crucial role in the formation of many languages of the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia.[citation needed]. Following the Muslim conquest of South Asia and the resulting vast Islamic empire, especially in the North and middle areas, a hybrid language of Turkish, Arabic and Persian and local dialects began to form around the 10th and 11th centuries CE, one that would eventually be known as Urdu. Ordu meaning army camp in Turkish and is also related to English word horde. Urdu was initially called Zaban-e-Ordu i.e. 'language of the army' (or language of the camps) and was later shortened to just Urdu. It grew from the interaction of (often Persian speaking) Muslim soldiers and native peoples. Soon, the Persian script and Nasta'liq form of cursive writing was adopted, with additional figures added to accommodate the Indian phonetic system, and a new language based on the Hindi grammar with a vocabulary largely divided between Persian and Arabic. Elements peculiar to Persian, such as the enclitic ezāfe, and the use of the takhallus, were readily absorbed into Urdu literature both religious and secular.
It is important to note that despite the heavy influence of Persian on Urdu, linguistically, Urdu is not classified as an Iranian language (as is Persian) but rather as an Indo-Aryan language (like Hindi, Bengali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, etc.—those having descended from Sanskrit). The linguists do not distinguish between Hindi and Urdu except for sociolinguistic purposes.
Urdu soon gained distinction as the preferred language in Persian courts of India and to this day retains an important place in literary and cultural spheres. Many distinctly Persian forms of literature, such as Ghazal, Qasida, Marsia and Nazms, came to both influence and be affected by local culture, producing a distinct melding of Middle Eastern and South Asian heritages. A famous cross-over writer was Amir Khusro, whose Persian and Urdu couplets are to this day read in South Asia. Persian has sometimes been termed an adopted classical language of the South Asia aside from Sanskrit due to its role in local tradition. Again note that before 1850's Urdu and Hindi were one and the same language, which was at times called Urdu and at times Hindvi.
- Urdu-Persian Only Digital Library of Both Urdu and Persian Books. [Allama Iqbal Urdu Cyber Library Network]
