Muqaddama Tareekh-e-Zaban-e-Urdu is a landmark academic work on the origin and historical development of Urdu language and Professor Masood Husain Khan's theory is considered in academic circles as one of the most consistent work on the origin and development of Urdu, with plausible arguments”, said Prof Mirza Khalil A Beg, former Chairman, Department of Linguistics (AMU), while delivering a web talk on “Masood Husain Khan's Contribution to Urdu Language and Linguistics”.

The web talk was organized under the banner of Masood Husain Khan Linguistic Society, Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University.

Prof Beg said that earlier many scholars of repute including Muhammad Husain Azad, Hafiz Mahmood Sheerani, Shamsullah Qadri, Mohiuddin Qadri Zore, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi and T Graham Bailey had propounded theories on the origin of Urdu. However, Masood Husain Khan, as a trained and accomplished linguist, who had a keen insight of the Indo-Aryan linguistics, adopted a modern linguistic approach to study the topic. He had a great understanding of the Shauraseni Prakrit that later developed into dialects, such as Khariboli, spoken in and around Delhi.

He also discussed the stylistic analysis of Iqbal's poem, “Ek Shaam” (An Evening).

Welcoming the guest speaker, Prof M J Warsi (Chairman), said, “Prof Mirza Khalil A Beg is a scholar of international repute who has done pioneering work in the area of Urdu Linguistics”. He said that Prof Masood Husain Khan very clearly and successfully presented the diachronic analysis and provided authentic evidence in establishing the genealogy of Urdu.