The calligraphic design above says "bab-e avval," or "First Part." It was most generously created by Adil Mansuri of New Jersey as one of *a set of chapter dividers for the book*.

*Prefatory material*
*Chapter One: History, Faith, Politics: Origin Myths of Urdu and Hindi*
    [see below for Urdu and Hindi translations of Chapter One]
*Chapter Two: Remaking History, Refashioning Culture*
*Chapter Three: Beginning, Then Going Away from Home*
*Chapter Four: The Birth of Literary Theory*
*Chapter Five: A True Beginning in the North*
*Chapter Six: A Phenomenon called Vali*
*Chapter Seven: The 'New' Literary Culture*
*Bibliography*
*Index*

This book is more or less an English version of the author's earlier Urdu work, Urdu ka ibtida'i zamanah: adabi tahzib o tarikh ke pahlu (Karachi: Aj Ki Kitaben, 1999). The two are not identical, however. The author was able to add some new material at various points in the English version. Here is *Chapter One in the Urdu version*.

Because of this book's popularity, it was also brought out in a Hindi edition: Urdu ka arambhik yug (New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, 2007). Here is *Chapter One in the Hindi version*.