Mehr Farooqi

Quranic Exegesis and the Development of Urdu in the 18th Century

  • Mehr Farooqi, University of Virginia | April 1, 2008

The Hindi Urdu Flagship hosts this fascinating exploration of the development of the Urdu language by the renowned historian of Urdu, Mehr Farooqi.

Farooqi is Assistant Professor of Urdu at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. “The Secret of Letters: Chronograms in Urdu Literary Culture,” which appeared in Edebiyat: The Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures, is her most recent publication. She is currently translating a voluminous selection of women’s writings in Urdu, spanning the last several centuries, for Oxford University Press. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, Dr. Farooqi taught Hindi, Urdu, and Persian language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Allahabad University in India and has numerous publication translations to her credit.