Literature and Languages in Delhi Sultanate

  • Persian became the official language of Delhi sultanate.
  • The development of Persian literature in the sub continent entered a new era in the writings of Amir Khusrau.
  • The court chronicles were an important feature of the literature during the period of the Delhi Sultanate
  • Ziauddin Barani made the most important contribution to Persian literature during this period. The Tarikh-I Firozshahi and the Fatwa-I Jahandari are his important works.
  • Ziauddin Barani was bitter critic of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
  • Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-iNasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties
    up to 1260.
  • Abu backer’s Chachanamh is the first geographical treatise deals with conquest of Sindh.
  • During this period there were many works that were translated into Persian. The Tuti Nama (book of the parrot) by Zia Nakshabi was the first Persian translation of Sanskrit stories.
  • A new language Urdu emerged during 14th
  • The growth in regional languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Telugu was a very significant development.