Literary criticism, Urdu - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Oesterheld, Christina
Leiden
Brill
(2,444 words)
The beginning of literary criticism (in the modern sense) in Urdu (tanqīd) is usually attributed to two authors of the late nineteenth century, Mawlānā Muḥammad Ḥusayn Āzād (d. 1910) and Alṭāf Ḥusayn Ḥālī (d. 1914). Literary criticism did, however, exist in Urdu before the colonial encounter. 1. The prehistory of modern Urdu criticism The earliest sources of critical ideas/criteria are brief asides in verses and prefaces to collections of poetry. Thus, Fārūqī regards Amīr Khusraw (d. 725/1325)-although he wrote predominantly in Persian-as a founder of theoretical