Medieval Indian Urdu Poetry

The period of Indian medieval is considered to be the time of Delhi sultanate and Mughal Empire between the 13 to 16 centuries. In this period, a massive exchange of culture occurred between Hindus and Muslims. The Indian music had deeply influenced the Muslim’s musical traditions. Similarly Mughal architecture was adopted by majority of Hindus.

During the Medieval period Urdu literature also came in being in India. Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), a great poet and most impressive poet was the early architect of Indian culture. He had experimented on the language in way that he mixed Persian and Hindi together to form another Language which is now a day’s know as Urdu. This was actually the origin of Urdu language. Urdu contains almost 70 % vocabulary of Persian Language but it also contains vocabulary from Hindi Language which actually made the basics of Medieval Indian poetry.  The ghazal, marsia and qasida are strictly from Iranian origin. Poet Sauda (1706 – 1781) is responsible for bring true versatility to Urdu Poetry. Mir Dard (1720-1785) and Mir Taqi Mir (1722-1810) are one of the few remarkable poets of Urdu language who actually bring the maturity to Urdu poetry. The Mughal Empire of 1500 to 1700 greatly enhanced the Urdu poetry by offering livelihood to Urdu poets.