The origin of the Urdu language like most of other languages is quite obscure.

A number
of theories have been put forward by the scholars to explain the origin of the Urdu
language.

1. According to Muhammad Husain Azad, Urdu language was born as a result of grafting
of Persian elements on the Braj-Bhasha, a dialect of western Hindi. This theory is
difficult to accept because the author has offered too simple an explanation for the Urdu.
Braj-Bhasha, though linguistically allied to the dialect spoken in the neighbourhood of
Delhi, is quite different in construction and morphology.

2. The second theory has been advocated by Mahmud Sherwani who holds that the Urdu
language was born as a result of the first contact between the Muslims and the Hindus
after the conquest of Punjab and Sindh by Mahmud Ghaznavi. He says that during the
period of over 170 years when Ghaznavi rulers were in occupation of Punjab, a number
of Persian, Turkish and Afghans came there and settled down in Punjab. As a result of
this close contact between the Punjabi speaking people and the Persian speaking people,
the two languages got mingled up and resulted in the evolution of a new language. In
short, Prof Sherwani holds that Urdu grew out of contact between Punjabi and Sindhi on
the one hand and Persian on the other hand. He discusses the structure and morphology
of the Urdu language and shows a grammatical affinity between Punjabi language and
the new language.

3. The third theory regarding the origin of Urdu language has been offered by Dr. Masud
Husain of Aligarh. He says that the Urdu language was evolved as a result of the grafting
of Persian language on Hariani, a language which was spoken in Delhi in the early days
of Sultanate. With the passage of the time, the Persian words and idioms were so
interwoven with Hariani, that the duality of the language was annihilated. Dr. Masud
Husain also makes a comparative study of the grammatical structure of Hariani and Urdu
and tries to prove the affinity of the two languages. Prof. Yusuf Hussain also seems to be
inclined to accept this view and says that Delhi was ideally situated for the development
of a synthetic language.

4. Dr. A L. Srivastava has also expressed the view that Urdu language, which was for a
long time called Dehlavi, must have been connected with the language spoken around
Delhi rather than with Punjabi. He further says that for a several hundred years (from
1200 to 1700 A.D.) Urdu and western Hindi were identical. Certain scholars like Amir
Khusrau who wrote in this language were considered as poets of both Urdu as well as
Hindi. These two languages had not only a common history and vocabulary but also an
identical grammatical structure.
One thing which is certain that the development of Urdu language was slow and took
many years before it became a fit vehicle of expression by the times of Amir Khusrau.

The language used by Khusrau and other writers has been claimed as Hindi as well as
Urdu by the scholars of the two languages. Amir Khusrau made liberal use of the Hindi
words in his works particularly in his couplets and riddles.

Amir Khusrau called the language used by him Hindawai or the Dehlavi. He composed
ghazals etc. in mixed language with alternate hemistich’s in Persian and Hindi, which
went a long way in the development of Urdu language.

This fashion of using mixed languages is best demonstrated from the following couplet of
Khusrau:

Shabane hijran daraz chun zulf o ruze waslate cho ‘umr kotah

Saki Piya ko jo main na dekhun to kaise katon andheri ratain.

—Khusrau

This fashion of writing mixed poetry was followed by other scholars also. For example,
Amir Hasan Ala Sijzi, a welt known Persian poet, also employed Hindi words in his
ghazals.

Although Khusrau is considered to be a great poet of Persian language, he himself

claimed that he wrote his poetry in the Hindavi language.

In the preface to his third diwan, he says: “I have scattered among my friends a few
chapters of Hindavi poetry also, but I would be content here with a mere mention of this
fact.” Again he says: ‘As I am a parrot of India ask me something in Hindavi that I may
talk sweetly.”

Amir Khusrau is also considered as the first Muslim poet of Hindi language.

According to the well accepted traditions, it is said that Khusrau recited the following
couplet, composed in pure Hindi verse, on the death of Shaikh Nizam-ud-din Aulia:

Gori sowe Saij par Mukh par dale kesh,

Chal Khusrau Ghar apne, Rain bhai chahun desh.

(The fair one sleeps on the bed with the tresses scattered on his face. O Khusrau come
home now, for night has fallen all over the world.)
It may be noted that the language known as Hindavi or Dehlavi, which was spoken in
Delhi and the surrounding districts combined both Hindi as well us Urdu languages. As a
result, there is great controversy among the scholars whether it should be designated
Hindi or Urdu. While the Hindi writers have called it as Hindi, the modern Urdu writers
would prefer it to name it as Urdu.

The only thing which distinguished the two was script. While the Muslims used Persian
script, the Hindus employed Devanagari script. Another criterion which distinguish the
two languages was the preponderant use of Sanskrit or Persian words. Whenever a writer
made preponderant use of Sanskrit, the language was known as Hindi, but when more
Persian and Arabic phrases were used the language was known as Urdu.

The Sufi saints and the Bhakti saints also played an important role in the evolution of the
Urdu language. The Sufi saints realised that it was futile to preach Islam through Persian,
a language which the masses of India could not understood. Therefore, these Sufis started
making use of a large number of Hindavi words in their conversation with their disciples
and the common people.

The various Muslim mystics rendered their works in mixed language which was
popularly known as Apabhramsa. Some of the notable works composed in this language
were Kuthan’s Mrigawat, Manjhan’s Madhumalti, and Malik Muhammad Jaisi’s
Padmavat written in the last quarter of the 14th century.

All these works were written in Uttar Pradesh, a Hindi speaking area. The Bhakti saints
also rendered a valuable service to the evolution of Hindi-Urdu language. Like the Sufi
saints they also made use of this language in preference to Sanskrit, because it could be
easily followed by common people.

It may be noted that Urdu language was neither patronized by Sultans of Delhi during
the Sultanate period nor by the Mughals until the times of emperor Muhammad Shah.
Throughout the Medieval period, the Persian continued to be the court language, which
was considered to the language of culture and scholarship.

The Indian Muslims, however, could not retain Persian as their mother-tongue and
started using Hindavi in their homes. Initially it was only a spoken language, but
gradually it was reduced in writing and became a language of culture.
It is rather strange that the Urdu language gained currency first in the South. In 1327
Muhammad Tughlaq invaded Deccan and founded Daultabad as his capital. Allauddin
Hasan Bahmani who rebelled against the Tughlaq ruler and set up a Bahmani kingdom,
played an important role in popularizing Urdu in the Deccan.

In Deccan Urdu language came into contact with Marathi, Telugu and Kanarese spoken
by the local people. Explaining the reasons for the growth of Urdu in Deccan Prof. S.R.
Sharma says, “Especially after the rise of the Bahmani kingdom the native Muslims of the
South wished to be as separate as possible from the imperial capital in the North and they
developed a local patriotism with a desire to emphasise their own life and modes of
thought, and lastly they began to suspect and dislike outsiders. This resulted in
cultivation of Urdu as opposed to Persian, which was the language of the Emperor’s
Court. This new dialect was known as Deccan and was considerably influenced by
Gujarati and Marathi.”

One of the first treatise written in Urdu or Rekhta in the South was Mirat Ul-Ashiqin by
Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz. This book though written in Persian script made
liberal use of Hindi language. After the break up of the Bahmani Kingdom the Muslim
Sultans of Golconda and Bijapur continued to patronize the Urdu.

Qutub Shahi Sultans of Golconda not only patronized Urdu scholars but also composed
numerous poems in this language. Two prominent poets from Golconda were Wajahi and
Ghawasi who occupy a very important position amongst the scholars of poetical
romances and masters of prose.

The Sultans of Bijapur were also great patrons of Urdu poets. Ibrahim Adil Shah II made
the Deccani Urdu as the court language in place of Persian. Some of the prominent
scholars of Deccani Urdu which flourished in Bijapur were Shah Miranji Shams-ul-
Ushahaq and Burhan-ud-Din Janun, who composed fine poems.

Shah Miran was a Sufi saint who wrote Khushnama and Khushnagaz. He also wrote one
of the largest poem entitled Shahai-ul-Haqiqat in lucid and simple language and avoided
the use of Arabic and Persian words. Muhammad Nusrat wrote Gulshane-Ishaq, Alinama
and Tarikh-i-Skandari which are works of great imagination and clarity of thought.

These works were greatly appreciated by Adil Shah and he honoured the author. Syed
Miran Hashmi wrote Yusuf Zulekha; Shah Aminuddin Ala wrote Muhiba Nama and
Rumuz-us-Satikin dealing with the spiritual love and unity of God.

Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah of the Qutub Shah dynasty was also a prominent writer of
Urdu. He composed ghazal, qasida, masnavi and morthiah, in which he deals with the
incident of every day life in a simple and simple style.
Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah also patronized the famous Urdu poet Wajahi the author of
Qutub Mushtri. Another important work of Wajahi was Sabras. Successors of
Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah were also great patrons of Deccani style Urdu.

While Abdullah Qutub Shah wrote poetry in Persian-Deccani language, Tana Shah, the
last Qutub Shahi ruler patronized the scholars like Faiz, the famous author of Ruzwane
Shah o-Ruhafza, a thought provoking masnavi.

In Gujarat, the credit for popularizing Hindavi language goes to Sheikh Qutb Alam and
Sheikh Ahmad Khattu. These Sufi scholars migrated to Gujarat after the invasions of
India by Timur in 1398. In course of time a number of disciples gathered around these
two scholars and an Indian school of literary style developed which is popularly known
as the Gujarat style.

Some of the prominent scholars who belong to Gujarat were Shah Ali Muhammad Jiv,
author of the Jawaharu’l Aarar, Khub Muhammad Chishti, author of Khub Tarang and
Amin, author of Yusuf Zulekha. The most outstanding mystic writer of Gujarat was
Khub Muhammad Chishti.

Apart from writing Khub Tarang, he wrote a number of treatises on Sufism. Another
prominent work of this author is Chand Chandan which deals with the Hindawi and
Persian prosody.

In the North although Urdu did not make much progress under the early Mughal rulers
some of the prominent scholars like Nuri Azampuri, Hazrat Kamaluddin Makhadum,
Shaikh Sadi and Mohammed Afzali, flourished during the times of Akbar, the great.

Similarly, Nasir Afzali Allahabadi and Pandit Chandrabhan were prominent Urdu poets
during the times of Shah Jahan. Under the later Mughal rulers Urdu was given every
possible encouragement. Emperor Muhammad Shah invited the famous Deccani poet
Shams-ud-Din Wali to recite his poems at his court.

One of the immediate impacts of the visit was that Wali started making use of Delhi
idioms in place of Deccani idioms in his works.

As a result of this change, Urdu became quite a different language from Hindi. Certain
other scholars also followed the foot-steps of Wali and wrote Urdu poetry with a large
number of Persian and Arabic words. Thus Urdu was completely separated from Hindi.

The Urdu writers also adopted the Persian forms and themes in their works. Efforts were
also made to purify the language by excluding the unfamiliar words and expressions of
the Deccani.
Thus we find that the Urdu language was enriched from generation to generation and
new techniques and traditions were adopted by it. No doubt, the problem of linguistic
adjustments gave rise to numerous stresses and strains in the beginning but in course of
time it became a means of cultural expression and mutual understanding.

In fact, Yusuf Husain says, 

“Urdu language…bears throughout indubitable marks of that process of absorption,
compromise and accommodation which is the keystone of medieval Indian thought and
history.”

Anil Chandra Banerjee has observed:

“Almost every work in Indo-Persian literature contains a large number of words of
Indian origin and thousands of Persian words became naturalized in every Indian
vernacular language. This mingling of Persian, Arabic and Turkish words and ideas with
languages and concepts of Sanskrit origin is extremely interesting from the philological
point of view, and this co-ordination of unknown resulted in the origin of the beautiful
Urdu language. That language in itself symbolized the reconciliation of the hitherto
irreconcilable and mutually hostile types of civilization represented by Hinduism and
Islam.”