The Language

Urdu evolved in the melting pot of ethnic populations that characterised Delhi since the rule of pre-Mughal Islamic dynasties that began circa 1100 AD. Soldiers of Turkic, Afghan, Mongol stocks and other itinerants mixing around in cantonments and their precincts cooked up a lingua franca that blended elements of Persian, Arabic and Turkish with a base of the archaic Hindavi then spoken in these parts. Shah Jahan christened it Urdu, from ‘Ordu’, Turkish for a military camp. As it stabilised, a script modified from the Perso-Arabic to suit Indian sounds was adopted.