URDU LITERATURE
some useful online resources

=Annual of Urdu Studies, an indispensable resource for serious students. Current issues, edited by Prof. M. U. Memon, including an archive: [site]. Issues from 1981-1990, edited by Prof. C. M. Naim, online through DSAL: [site]

=Journal of South Asian Literature (formerly Mahfil) also contains a number of good articles: it's online through DSAL: [site]

=The Urdu version of Project Gutenberg: heavily devoted to Iqbaliana, but with lots of other complete books too: [site]

=*THE DATELIST OF URDU LITERARY FIGURES*, an ongoing project created by S. R. Faruqi, F. W. Pritchett, and A. Sean Pue. It is now (as of 2003) a database housed on Sean Pue's website, so he will be the chief maintainer from now on.
 

=Aaj (Karachi), an Urdu literary journal online: [site]

=Abdul Haq, Qava'id-e Urdu (1914): [site]

=Azad, Muhammad Husain, Ab-e hayat (1880): available in translation (Pritchett and Faruqi) with hyperlinks to the original Urdu: [site]

=Azad, Muhammad Husain, Darbar-e Akbari: [site]

=Azeem, Anwer, "An Unforgettable Teller of Tales." Social Scientist 29, 334-35 (2001). A tribute to Manto, originally composed in 1955: [site]

=Bailey, T. Grahame. A History of Urdu Literature (1932): [on this site]

=Chughtai, Ismat, "Chauthi ka jora" and related materials: [on this site

=Dawn (Pakistan), a weekly magazine, often has articles about Urdu literary topics: [site]. Its online archives are limited to a month or so; fortunately most of its past issues are available in a searchable archive maintained at the Univ. of Virginia: [site]

=M. Asaduddin, "The Exiles Return: Qurratulain Hyder's Art of Fiction," Manushi 119: [site]

=Dawood, Attiya. The personal website of the Sindhi/Urdu poet, writer, and feminist: [site]

=Emery, Ed. "The Trajectory of AABBBA from Ibn Quzman of Andalus, via the Marian Laudes to Dante's "Morte villana di pietà nemica": [site] (on the possible Andalusian origins of the sonnet and other English poetic forms)

=Farooqi, Mehr Afshan. "The Secret of Letters: Chronograms in Urdu Literary Culture," Edebiyat 13,2 (2003), pp. 147-58; in pdf format: [on this site]

=Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. This site provides a whole page of links to many of his major articles in English.

=Fort William College: a bibliography of its publications (in PDF format): [on this site]

=Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan: "A Desertful of Roses," an online study of his (published and unpublished) Urdu ghazals, by FWP: [on this site]

=Hali, Altaf Husain, "Justice for the Silent" and Majalis un-nisa: [on this site]

=Hook, Peter. Some experiments in the English ghazal. Unpublished; made available by the author here only, for classroom use and discussion: [site]

=Husain, Iqbal, "Akbar Allahabadi and National Politics," Social Scientist 16, 180 (1988): [site]

=Hyder, Qurratulain: she talks about her life in an interview with BBC Urdu: [site]; a tribute by Azra Raza, Aug. 2007: [site]

=Hyder, Syed Akbar, "Recasting Karbala in the Genre of Urdu Marsiya," Sagar (spring 1995): [site]

=Insha'allah Khan Insha: materials for the 2007 Urdu-Hindi workshop: [on this site]

=Intizar Husain, Basti, in FWP's translation: [on this site]; and links to other sources on him: [on this site]

=Iqbal, Sir Muhammad, lots of material: [on this site]

=Jafri, Ali Sardar, "Hafiz Shirazi, 1312-1387/89." Social Scientist 28, 320-21 (2000): [site]

=Kahf, Mohja, "Chaste Love to Explicit Sex: Three Types of Arabic Love Poetry," Muslim Wakeup, June 18, 2004: [site]

=Kathwari, Rafiq: New translations of some of Iqbal's poems, online at nycbigcitylit.com: [site]

=Kellogg, Rev. S. H., A Grammar of the Hindi Language (1938 ed.): those excellent comparative dialectical charts are [on this site]

=Lal, Vinay, "The Courtesan and the Indian Novel," on his own "Manas" website: [site]

=Lelyveld, David, "Zuban-e Urdu-e Mu'alla and the Idol of Linguistic Origins," Annual of Urdu Studies 9 (1994): [site]

=Manto, Saadat Hasan "Toba Tek Singh": a translation and study site by FWP: [on this site]

=Minault, Gail, "Delhi College and Urdu," Annual of Urdu Studies 14 (1999): [site]

=Mir, Ali Husain and Raza, Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2006): the book doesn't always identify the Urdu poetry passages that it presents. Here's the authors' own list of poetry passages and poets.

=Mir, Ali Husain, "The Poetry of 'No': Sahir Ludhianvi's Progressive Experiment," in Outlook India, July 29, 2004: [site]

=Mir, Raza, "Dream and Nightmare: Urdu Progressive Poetry's Flirtation with Modernity," in Ghadar 5,1 (Feb. 21, 2002): [site]

=Mir, Mir Taqi, "A Garden of Kashmir," an online study of his Urdu ghazals by FWP: [on this site]

=Mir Amman Dihlavi, Bagh o Bahar, or the Story of the Four Dervishes (1804), trans. by Duncan Forbes (1874): [on this site]

=Murtaza, Riffat: The short-story writer's own site, where she presents texts of many of her stories and discusses them: [site]

=Muse India 14 (July-Aug. 2007): "Urdu Literature Today": [site]

=Naim, C. M. "Ghazal and Taghazzul," in The Literatures of India: An Introduction. Edward C. Dimock, et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Pp. 185-197: [on this site]; also much other material by Naim: [on this site]

=Nicholson, R. A., Studies in Islamic Poetry (1920): [site]

==PERSIAN LITERATURE: a page of materials for background study: [on this site]

=Platts, John T., A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1930's impression. Online through DSAL. The one truly indispensable dictionary for the English-speaking Urdu student. If Platts had given proper credit to the many learned munshis who worked with him, it would be perfect: [site]

=Premchand, "The Pharaohs of Urdu," trans. by C. M. Naim, Annual of Urdu Studies 18 (2003): [site]

=Premchand, "The Shroud," a translation and study site by FWP: [on this site]

=Pritchett, Frances W., Nets of Awareness (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1994): [site]

=Pritchett, Frances W., The Romance Tradition in Urdu: Adventures from the Dastan of Amir Hamzah. Greatly expanded translation, available only online: [site]

=FWP-- A variety of articles and translations, taken from published work, available at this site. And of course there's also the ongoing Ghalib commentary, "A DESERTFUL OF ROSES."

=FWP and Khaliq Ahmad Khaliq, Urdu Meter: A Practical Handbook. Madison: South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Publication Series, 1987. The revised ONLINE EDITION is now available here.

=Pybus, Captain G. D. A Text-Book of Urdu Prosody and Rhetoric (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1924): [on this site]

=Raza, Mir Ali, "The Poetry of 'No'" [about Sahir Ludhianvi], Outlook India, July 29, 2004: [site]

=Raza, Mir, "Dream and Nightmare: Urdu Progressive Poetry's Flirtation with Modernity," Ghadar 5,1 (Feb. 21, 2002): [site]. Also in Outlook India, Nov. 26, 2004: [site]

=Russell, Ralph, "The Islam of Urdu Poetry," The Hindu, April 7, 2002: [site]

=Rusva, Mirza Muhammad Hadi, Umrao Jan Ada (1899), the whole first-edition text with a serial glossary, and much more: [on this site]

=Sauda, Mirza Rafi'-- some of his satiric masnavis, translated and annotated by Major Henry Court (1825), with Urdu texts: [on this site]

=Schimmel, Annemarie. Pain and Grace: A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-century Muslim India. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976. The 'Pain' refers to Mir Dard. This book is online through NetLibrary. For CU access, here's the exact location.

=Bahadur Shah 'Zafar'-- a good page of material about him: [site]

=LITERARY JOURNALS and TEXT sites in Urdu:

="Istaara.com, an Electronic Urdu Literary Magazine"
="Jadeed Adab," an online Urdu literary magazine based in Germany
="Sherosokhan," an online Urdu literary magazine based in Toronto
="Urdu Ham-asr," an online Urdu literary magazine based in Denmark
="Kitab Ghar," an online Urdu literary magazine based in Chicago
="Urdu Book Review," a bi-monthly magazine, New Delhi
="Urdu poetry," a good overview site for checking out a variety of poets
="Urdu point," a site full of Urdu poetry texts in lovely calligraphy
="Urdustan," a site that provides a new nazm every month, including archives
="Pakistanvision," a site that offers many ghazals, etc., in audio format; good listening practice, but with pop-up ads
="Eurdubazaar," a site that provides a variety of Urdu literary texts in a clear and legible format.
=A site that provides a set of short stories, convenient for reading practice
="Urdu manzil," a site with information about Urdu writers, especially Pakistani ones
=A site presenting some verses from Ghalib, with commentary by Ghulam Rasul Mihr.
="Urdu Dost," a general literary website: [site]
="Urdu Nagar," a general literary website: [site]
="Urdu Classic," a general literary site: [site]


=The South Asian Literary Recordings Project of the Library of Congress, with Urdu writers reading their own work: [site]; another such site, featuring poets reciting their poetry: [site]

=The Urdulist, a small listserv for serious students of Urdu literature: for full information, send an email to <majordomo@columbia.edu> with no header and only the words "info urdulist" (without quotes) in the body.

=For people anywhere near New York City: there's the *Urdu/Hindi workshop* held at Columbia every spring


 
 
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