Urdu

Urdu (Urdu: اردو) is a register of the Hindustani language identified with Muslims. It is the national language and one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and one of 22 scheduled languages of India, as an official language of five Indian states. Based on the dialect of Delhi, Hindustani aka Urdu developed under Persian, Arabic, and Turkicinfluence over the course of almost 900 years. It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pradesh during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527), and continued to develop under the Mughal Empire (1526–1858). Modern Urdu is mutually intelligible with the younger register of Hindustani, which is often simply called "Hindi".