This short history of Urdu literature aims at describing Urdu language and its literature right from its beginning till the end of 1928. The book covers the origin of Urdu language, its early history, and also Dakhani Urdu and its writers. No country can afford to neglect her ancient heritage – the treasury of its knowledge, wisdom and beauty which are contained in its literature, philosophy and art which are too precious to be lost. Utmost care has been taken to select the writers and poets covered in this unique volume. Their works were scholarly and at the same time sympathetic so that the best may be enjoyed by the reader. It also covers the religious period, the first literary period in the Deccan when Qutb Shahi poets flourished, the Adil Shahi poets, Urdu poetry in Delhi and Lucknow in the nineteenth century, the later periods and also includes the period of the Fort William translations. At the end is a bibliography of Urdu classics.