Reading guides
رہنما مضامین
Book guides
Umrao Jan Ada: Summary, Characters and Themes
امراؤ جان ادا
Ruswa's 1899 novel of a Lucknow courtesan, the most celebrated novel in Urdu.
Godaan by Premchand: Summary, Characters and Themes
گئودان
Premchand's last novel: a farmer, his wife and their hope of owning a cow.
Gaban by Premchand: Summary, Characters and Themes
غبن
A young husband's lie about money, and a wife who makes him face the truth.
Bagh-o-Bahar: The Tale of the Four Darvesh Explained
باغ و بہار
The classic Urdu dastan of King Azad Bakht and the four wandering dervishes.
Taubat-un-Nasuh by Nazir Ahmad: Summary, Characters and Themes
توبۃ النصوح
A Delhi father's conversion after a cholera dream, and the son who refuses to follow.
Ibn-ul-Waqt by Nazir Ahmad: Summary and Themes
ابن الوقت
The first great Urdu satire of colonial mimicry: knives, forks, hats and arguments.
Baital Pachisi: The Twenty-Five Tales of the Vetal Explained
بیتال پچیسی
King Vikram, a corpse in a tree, and twenty-five stories that end in riddles.
Tears of the Begums (Begamat ke Aansoo): Stories of 1857
بیگمات کے آنسو
What became of the last Mughal princes and princesses after Delhi fell in 1857.
Writings of 1857 by Khwaja Hasan Nizami: A Guide
۱۸۵۷ء کی تحریریں
Eleven more pieces on the fall of Mughal Delhi, never gathered into Tears of the Begums.
Chup ki Daad by Hali: The Poem on Women, Explained
چپ کی داد
Hali's 1905 poem honouring women's silent endurance and their right to learning.
Sir Syed's Essays from Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq: A Guide
مضامینِ سرسید
The essays that launched the Aligarh movement and gave Urdu its modern prose.
Asateeri Mabahis by Sajid Ali Ameer: Myth in the Modern Urdu Nazm
اساطیری مباحث اور دوسرے مضامین
A young critic on myth in the modern nazm, textual editing and new Urdu writing.
Intikhab-e-Mir: Sixty Ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir in English
انتخابِ میر
Sixty ghazals by the poet Ghalib called the master, with facing English translation.
Writers
Munshi Premchand: Life, Works and Where to Start
منشی پریم چند
The life and books of the writer who brought the Indian village into fiction.
Mirza Hadi Ruswa: Life and Works of the Author of Umrao Jan Ada
مرزا محمد ہادی رسوا
The Lucknow scholar, poet and novelist behind the most celebrated Urdu novel.
Mir Amman Dehlavi: The Author of Bagh-o-Bahar
میر امن دہلوی
The Delhi storyteller whose Bagh-o-Bahar became a model of Urdu prose.
Deputy Nazir Ahmad: Life and Novels
ڈپٹی نذیر احمد
The Delhi scholar and official who wrote the first Urdu novels.
Khwaja Hasan Nizami: The Sufi Writer of Delhi
خواجہ حسن نظامی
The Sufi of Nizamuddin who recorded the fate of the Mughal family after 1857.
Altaf Hussain Hali: Poet, Critic and Reformer
الطاف حسین حالی
Ghalib's pupil, Sir Syed's ally, and the founder of modern Urdu criticism.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Life, Works and the Aligarh Movement
سر سید احمد خاں
The reformer who founded Aligarh and gave Urdu its modern prose.
Syed Sibte Hasan: Journalist, Thinker and Historian of Ideas
سید سبط حسن
The progressive journalist whose books taught generations to think about history.
Mazhar Ali Khan Vila: The Translator of Baital Pachisi
مظہر علی خان ولا
The Delhi poet who gave Urdu its Baital Pachisi at Fort William College.
Sajid Ali Ameer: Urdu Critic and Author of Asateeri Mabahis
ساجد علی امیر
A young Pakistani critic writing on myth, textual editing and new Urdu writing.
Mir Taqi Mir: Life and Poetry of the Master of the Ghazal
میر تقی میر
The eighteenth-century poet Urdu calls Khuda-e-Sukhan, the god of poetry.
Mirza Ghalib: Life, Poetry and Letters
مرزا غالب
The most quoted poet of Urdu, and the witness of Delhi's fall in 1857.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of the East
علامہ محمد اقبال
The poet-philosopher of selfhood, and the national poet of Pakistan.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz: Poet of Love and Revolution
فیض احمد فیض
The poet who made the ghazal's language of love speak for justice.
Ahmad Faraz: Life and Poetry
احمد فراز
The romantic and defiant ghazal poet whose verses everyone seems to know.
Parveen Shakir: Poet of Women's Love and Longing
پروین شاکر
The poet who gave the Urdu ghazal a woman's voice, from Khushbu to Mah-e-Tamam.
Jaun Elia: The Rebel Poet of Despair and Wit
جون ایلیا
The brilliant, self-mocking poet who published his first book at sixty.
Sahir Ludhianvi: Poet and Film Lyricist
ساحر لدھیانوی
The progressive poet who brought serious Urdu poetry into Hindi film songs.
Bahadur Shah Zafar: The Last Mughal Emperor and Poet
بہادر شاہ ظفر
The poet-emperor whose reign ended in 1857 and whose verse mourns a lost world.
Mir Anees: The Master of the Urdu Marsiya
میر انیس
The Lucknow poet whose elegies on Karbala are the summit of the marsiya.
Akbar Allahabadi: The Great Satirist of Urdu Poetry
اکبر الٰہ آبادی
The judge-poet who laughed at the colonial age, its schools, fashions and reformers.
Josh Malihabadi: The Poet of Revolution
جوش ملیح آبادی
The thundering poet of revolution and the author of a famous autobiography.
Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Modern Master of the Ghazal
فراق گورکھپوری
The Allahabad professor who renewed the Urdu ghazal and won the Jnanpith Award.
Forms and genres
What Is a Ghazal? The Urdu Ghazal Explained
غزل
How a ghazal is built, what it is about, and who wrote and sang the greatest ones.
What Is a Nazm? The Urdu Nazm from Nazir to Free Verse
نظم
The titled, single-subject Urdu poem, from rhymed stanzas to free verse.
What Is a Dastan? Urdu Romance, Magic and Storytelling
داستان
The long tales of wonder that Urdu storytellers performed for centuries.
What Is an Afsana? The Urdu Short Story and Its Masters
افسانہ
The modern Urdu short story, from Premchand and Manto to Qurratulain Hyder.
What Is a Marsiya? The Urdu Elegy of Karbala
مرثیہ
The great Urdu elegy, recited in Muharram for the martyrs of Karbala.
What Is a Masnavi? Urdu Narrative Poetry in Rhyming Couplets
مثنوی
The long story-poem in rhyming couplets, from Rumi to Mir Hasan's Sihr-ul-Bayan.
What Is a Qasida? The Urdu Ode of Praise
قصیدہ
The grand ode of praise, from Sauda's court poems to the devotional qasida.
Learning Urdu
How to Learn Urdu: A Practical Guide for Beginners
اردو کیسے سیکھیں
A step-by-step route from your first Urdu sounds to reading real literature.
Urdu and Hindi: What Is the Difference?
اردو اور ہندی
One spoken language, two scripts and two literary vocabularies, explained with examples.
The Urdu Alphabet: All the Letters, Names and Sounds
اردو حروفِ تہجی
Every letter of the Urdu alphabet with its name and sound, and how to learn them.
Urdu Pronunciation: A Guide to the Sounds English Doesn't Have
اردو تلفظ
The handful of Urdu sounds that are new to English speakers, and how to say them.
Urdu Greetings and Phrases: How to Say Hello, Thank You and Goodbye
سلام دعا
Hello, how are you, my name is, thank you and goodbye, with the etiquette behind them.
Urdu Numbers 1 to 100: Counting in Urdu with Roman Urdu
اردو گنتی
Every number from 0 to 100, lakh and crore, ordinals and the everyday fractions.
Family Words in Urdu: Chacha, Mamu, Khala and Every Relative
رشتے داروں کے نام
Why Urdu has four words for uncle, and every family word you need.
Days of the Week, Months and Seasons in Urdu
دن، مہینے اور موسم
Monday to Sunday, January to December, the seasons and the Islamic months.
Basic Urdu Grammar for Beginners: The Rules That Matter Most
اردو قواعد
Word order, gender, postpositions and the other rules that unlock Urdu sentences.