1.
Urdu
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Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
2.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
3.
South Asia
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Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
4.
Mir Taqi Mir
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Meer Muhammad Taqi Meer, whose takhallus was Mir, was the leading Urdu poet of the 18th century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal. The main source of information on Mirs life is his autobiography Zikr-e-Mir, however, it is said to conceal more than it reveals, with material that is undated or presented in no chronological sequence. Therefore, many of the details of Mirs life remain a matter of speculation. Mir was born in Agra, India in August or February 1722, Mirs father died while the poet was in his teens. He left Agra for Delhi a few years after his fathers death, to finish his education, especially, as Frances W. Mir lived much of his life in Mughal Delhi. Kuchha Chelan, in Old Delhi was his address at that time, however, after Ahmad Shah Abdalis sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the kings invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets, though he was given a kind welcome by Asaf-ud-Daulah, he found that he was considered old-fashioned by the courtiers of Lucknow. Mirs relationships with his patron gradually grew strained, and he severed his connections with the court. In his last years Mir was very isolated and his health failed, and the untimely deaths of his daughter, son and wife caused him great distress. He died, of an overdose, on Friday,21 September 1810. The marker of his place was removed in modern times when a railway was built over his grave. His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of six Diwans containing 13,585 couplets, comprising all kinds of forms, ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire. Mirs literary reputation is anchored on the ghazals in his Kulliyat-e-Mir and his masnavi Muamlat-e-Ishq is one of the greatest known love poems in Urdu literature. The death of his members, together with earlier setbacks, lend a strong pathos to much of Mirs writing – and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos. Mirs famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, was Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Mirs supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa and it may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Mir was indeed a genius who deserved respect. Here are two couplets by Mirza Ghalib on this matter, Ghalib and Aish were opponent to each other but both of them believed the superiority of Mir and also acknowledged Mirs superiority in their poetry
5.
Ghalib
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Ghalib born Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, on 27 December 1797 – died 15 February 1869), was the preeminent Urdu and Persian-language poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib and Asad, during his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he described. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted, Ghalib, the last great poet of the Mughal Era, is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Today Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world, Mirza Ghalib was born in Kala Mahal, Agra into a family descended from Aibak Turks who moved to Samarkand after the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig Khan, was a Saljuq Turk who had immigrated to India from Samarkand during the reign of Ahmad Shah and he worked at Lahore, Delhi and Jaipur, was awarded the subdistrict of Pahasu and finally settled in Agra, UP, India. He had four sons and three daughters, Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan and Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan were two of his sons. Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan married Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, an ethnic Kashmiri and he was employed first by the Nawab of Lucknow and then the Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan. He died in a battle in 1803 in Alwar and was buried at Rajgarh, then Ghalib was a little over 5 years of age. He was raised first by his Uncle Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan, at the age of thirteen, Ghalib married Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh. He soon moved to Delhi, along with his brother, Mirza Yousuf Khan. In accordance with upper class Muslim tradition, he had a marriage at the age of 13. After his marriage he settled in Delhi, in one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a theme in his poetry. Translation in English The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and he has also later translated Faiz Ahmed Faizs most famous Ghazal - Gulon me rang bhare too. At the age of thirty he had seven children, none of whom survived, there are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing, Ghalib was proud of his reputation as a rake. He was once imprisoned for gambling and subsequently relished the affair with pride, in the Mughal court circles, he even acquired a reputation as a ladies man. Once, when someone praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib immediately retorted, How can Sahbai be a poet
6.
Mir Babar Ali Anis
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Mir Baber Ali Anees was an Urdu poet, born in 1803 in Faizabad, Oudh now in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who died in 1874 in Lucknow, North-Western Provinces. Anis used Persian, Hindi, Arabic, and Sanskrit words in his poetry, Anis wrote prolonged Marsias, which was a custom of his times, but nowadays only selected sections are narrated even in religious ceremonies. He died in 1291 Hijra, corresponding with 1874 A. D. Mir Babar Ali Anis was born in 1803 CE at Faizabad, a Musavi sayyed, descended from the 7th Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, he belonged to a family of poets. In his book Khandaan- e-Mir Anees ke Naamwar Sho’ara, Zameer Naqvi listed 22 poets from Mir Anis’ family, Mir Anis was a fifth-generation poet, a fact he mentioned in the first stanza of his famous Marsiya Namak-e-Khwaan-e-Takallum hai Fasaahat meri. He says, His mother appears to have been his main inspiration, but he was also intellectually curious and gifted. Anis gained a traditional Shia education, masood also notes that Anis was well versed in Persian as well as in Arabic. Anis also had training and gained a thorough knowledge of old. Mir Anis was invited to Lucknow where he reached the zenith of his reputation, Mir Anis did not like to move out of Lucknow apprehending that his art would not be appreciated elsewhere. Yet, after the annexation of Oudh by the British, he was persuaded to visit Azimabad, Dulhipur, Hyderabad and Allahabad. While returning from Hyderabad, he sojourned at Allahabad in 1871 and recited his marsia in the Imambara of late Lala Beni Prasad Srivastava, Vakil and he died in 1874 CE and is buried at his own residence in Lucknow. According to Muhammad Hussain Azad The late Mīr Sahib must certainly have composed at least ten thousand elegies and he composed as easily and casually as he spoke. Anis is also known as pioneer in Rubai, an Urdu poetry branch, besides being a master of the Marsia, Anis was also a specialist of the Rubai, the shortest complete poem in Urdu, containing only four lines. Mir Anees had a capability for the writing of Rubais. He immeasurably enriched the contents of the Rubai, making it much more colorful, Anis introduced the tragic events of Karbala and their moralistic effect to Rubai. Thus, he widened the scope of Rubai to unfathomable limits, the inclusion of Karbala resulted in the florescence of the Urdu Rubai. Thus, many internal and external aspects of our life found their echo in the Urdu Rubai. Anis. was a master of simple, natural utterance, with a command on the language. He is especially notable for presenting the scene or situation, over and over again, in different words or phrases
7.
Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer
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Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer was a leading Urdu poet who excelled and perfected the art of Marsiya writing. He is considered the leading exponent of Marsiya Nigari or marsiya writing along with Mir Anis, Mirza Dabeer was born in 1803 in Delhi. He started reciting marsiya since childhood during muharram ceremonial gatherings called majalis and he started writing poetry under the tutelage of Mir Muzaffar Husain Zameer. Dabeer himself was a scholar of his time. He migrated from Delhi to Lucknow, where he found suitable environment to develop, Mirza Dabeer died in Lucknow in 1875 and is buried there. According to Muhammad Husain Azad in Aab-e-Hayat, Mirzā Sahib died on the 29th of Muharram, AH1292, in his lifetime he must have written at least three thousand elegies. Not counting his salāms and nauhas and quatrains, and theres no doubt that with him elegy composition in India reached its conclusion. Now no such time will come, nor will such accomplished persons be born, salaam and rubai, he seldom wrote ghazals too. A couplet from one of his salaams is an example of his genius comparable to Ghalib, Hurr fida pyaasa jo Shah par ho gaya Ai salami. Meaning, When the thirsty Hurr sacrificed his life for the Shah, O salami, Anis and Dabeer rivalry is the most debated and talked about rivalry in Urdu literature. Their rivalry led to the development of two distinct styles/schools of Marsiya-nigari or marsiya writing at its inception, the staunch supporters of each of the masters identified themselves as Aneesiya and Dabeeriya. The impact of rivalry was so intense that the followers could neither free themselves from their influence nor surpass either masters brilliance, although the populace divided themselves into two separate groups the two poets remained at cordial terms and acknowledged each other with great respect. Mirza Dabeer was born in 1803, a later than Anis. This chronological closeness is amazing Dabeer is a poet unduly neglected, what is deplorable is the fact that no complete, authentic text of Dabeer’s poetry is available and critical work on him too is buried in the files of literary journals. Mirza Dabeer stands in need of research and study as he has been ignored by the scholars, in the inaugural session, Dr. Syed Taqi Abidi of Canada presented a review of Dabeers quatrains. Prof. Muhammad Zaman Azurda presented an article on Dabeers prose-writing in the second session, youths besides senior litterateurs and intellectuals attended the seminar in a large number. Dr. Syed Taqi Abedi, who is settled in Canada, was the keynote speaker, Dr Abidi claimed that Mir Anees and Mirza Dabeer had used more words in Urdu poetry than any other poet. He said Nazir Akbarabadi had written 8,500 couplets, whereas Dabeers tally was 120,000, video series consist 8 marsiya based on topic and 2 soaz written by Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer
8.
Muhammad Iqbal
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He is called the Spiritual father of Pakistan. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Pakistanis, Indians, Iranians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and other international scholars of literature. Though Iqbal is best known as an eminent poet, he is also a highly acclaimed Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times and his first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these, his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim, along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his Urdu and English lectures and letters have been very influential in cultural, social, religious and political disputes. In 1922, he was knighted by King George V, granting him the title Sir, while studying law and philosophy in England, Iqbal became a member of the London branch of the All-India Muslim League. In much of South Asia and the Urdu speaking world, Iqbal is regarded as the Shair-e-Mashriq and he is also called Mufakkir-e-Pakistan, Musawar-e-Pakistan and Hakeem-ul-Ummat. The Pakistan government officially named him a national poet and his birthday Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl, or Iqbal Day, is a public holiday in Pakistan. In India he is remembered as the author of the popular song Saare Jahaan Se Achcha. Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot within the Punjab Province of British India and his grandparents were Kashmiri Pandits, the Brahmins of the Sapru clan from Kashmir who converted to Islam. In the 19th century, when the Sikh Empire was conquering Kashmir, Iqbal often mentioned and commemorated his Kashmiri Pandit Brahmin lineage in his writings. Iqbals father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad, was a tailor, not formally educated, Iqbals mother Imam Bibi was a polite and humble woman who helped the poor and solved the problems of neighbours. She died on 9 November 1914 in Sialkot, Iqbal loved his mother, and on her death he expressed his feelings of pathos in a poetic form elegy. Who would wait for me anxiously in my native place, who would display restlessness if my letter fails to arrive. I will visit thy grave with this complaint, Who will now think of me in midnight prayers, All thy life thy love served me with devotion— When I became fit to serve thee, thou hast departed. Iqbal was four years old when he was admitted to the masjid to learn the Quran and he learned the Arabic language from his teacher Syed Mir Hassan, the head of the madrassa and professor of Arabic language at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, where he matriculated in 1893. He received Intermediate with the Faculty of Arts diploma from Murray College Sialkot in 1895, the same year he enrolled at the Government College Lahore where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, English literature and Arabic in 1897, and won the Khan Bahadurddin F. S. Jalaluddin medal as he took higher numbers in Arabic class, in 1899, he received his Masters of Arts degree from the same college and had the first place in Punjab University, Lahore. Iqbal married three times, in 1895 while studying Bachelor of Arts he had his first marriage with Karim Bibi and they had daughter Miraj Begum and son Aftab Iqbal
