'URDU' is a Turkish word. The fact that it literally means 'army' or 'army camp' gave rise to myth that Urdu is a 'camp language', though linguists have proved that neither is Urdu a 'camp language' nor can any language be formed by intermingling two or more languages. It is not the vocabulary but the grammatical and syntactical structure of a language that determines its family since almost every language spoken in the world has loanwords. And Urdu's grammatical and syntactical structure points to its local origins that have their roots essentially in vernacular dialects of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.

But the fact remains that Urdu has borrowed words from other languages whole-heartedly and its lexical legacy includes, just like many other languages, vocabulary from a myriad of sources. Turkish is among the languages from which Urdu has borrowed words in a large number, the other languages being Persian and Arabic.

The Turkish language arrived in the subcontinent quite early. Mehmud of Ghazni was in fact of Turkish origin. Amir Khusrau Dehlvi, too, was of Turkish origin. Mogul Emperor Babur wrote 'Babur Nama' — his chronicles or memoirs, as you like to call it — in Turkish and it contains a large number of Urdu words. Hafiz Mehmud Sherani has given, in the second volume of his 'Maqalaat', the details of Urdu words used in Babur Nama. Babur and his sons Kamran and Humayun composed poetry in Turkish.

Just to give the readers an idea that how Turkish has influenced Urdu's vocabulary, I would enlist some Turkish loanwords used in Urdu. I owe this list in fact to an article titled 'The Turkish elements in Urdu', written by Dr Erkan Turkmen of Turkey's Seljuk University. Some of the words are apa (elder sister), autaq (tent or room), ataleeq (teacher), urdu (army or army camp), agha (master or elder brother), anna (nurse of a child), elchi (ambassador or messenger), baji (elder sister or elderly woman), bahadur (a strong man, brave), beg or baig (prince or master), begum (lady; female of beg), pasha (chief, lord, army chief), tamgha (medal, seal, title, trade mark), taup (gun or cannon), taushak (cotton mattress), chadar (sheet, cover on grave), chaaq, as in chaaq-o-choband (strong, healthy), chaqu (knife), chapqalish (a sword, turmoil, crowd), chiq (curtain made of reeds), khan (chief, head), khatoon (lady, daughter of a lord), dada (grandfather), suraagh (sign, clue), surma (kohl) (but kohl itself is an Arabic word used in English to say 'antimony sulphide'), qabu (control), qaash (a slice of a fruit), quli or coolie (slave, porter), qaurma (fried meat), qeema (minced meat), qainchi (a pair of scissors)... and the list goes on.

Dr Turkmen says that “when we travel from Delhi to Afghanistan the Turkish effects on language and culture become more and more visible...and we all of a sudden find ourselves in a Turkish atmosphere. Same is the case with Punjabi” and that “Pushto has more Turkish words than Punjabi”.

It shows that Turkish language and culture have left indelible marks on our language and culture. But there are very few among us who have really cared to explore these historical ties and the cultural relations. Among those few outstands Dr Muhammad Sabir who taught the Turkish language and Turkish history for some 40 years at Karachi University. He was an authority on the history and culture of Ottoman Empire. The history of central Asia and Middle East was another area of his expertise. He knew Persian, Hindi, English, Turkish and different Turkish dialects and wrote in four languages — Urdu, English, Persian and, of course, Turkish. At least with Dr Sabir around, nobody could complain that

zaban-i-yar-i-man Turkey wa man Turkey nami danam
che khush boode agar boode zabanash dar dahan-i-man

This can roughly be translated as (the language of my lover is Turkish but I don't know Turkish; it would have been great, had I had her tongue in my mouth.

Dr Sabir compiled the first ever modern Turkish-Urdu dictionary. The dictionary, compiled in consultation with the Turk Dil Kurumu (a Turkish institute of language) and published in collaboration with the Urdu Dictionary Board in 1968, has 20,000 words and, besides the basic Turkish vocabulary, it especially enlists the Turkish words used in Urdu, either in their original or slightly changed form. The preface to the dictionary contains vital information on Turkish language in Urdu and a brief history of Urdu and its script in Turkish. Later, he translated some poems of Iqbal into Turkish, rendered Babur's poetry from Uzbek Turkish to modern Turkish and edited Bayam Khan's Turkish deevan. Babur was of special interest to him and he wrote a paper on Babur's Urdu, Turkish and Persian poetry. Another booklet of his discusses the orthographic aspects of Urdu words used in Babur's writings.

Born in a small village near Allahabad, UP, in 1935, Dr Sabir showed a keen interest in Turkish language and began learning it with the books when he was 19. While doing his BA at Allahabad University, Dr Sabir came across a Turko-Chinese immigrant and began learning Turkish from him and soon got such proficiency that he began contributing articles to 'Hilal', a Turkish periodical.

In 1954, he migrated to Pakistan and obtained a master's degree in Islamic History from Karachi University in 1958. Having been awarded a scholarship by the government of Pakistan the same year, he went to Turkey and got his PhD in 1961 from Istanbul University. His doctoral dissertation, written in Turkish, was on Mir Ali Sher Nawai and was partially published from Istanbul University in 1966. In 1961, he began teaching at Karachi University and ultimately headed its department of Islamic History for some 15 years.Aside from his books and research papers, Dr Sabir's major contribution was to introduce Urdu and Pakistani culture on a larger scale in Turkey and promoting Turkish language and studies in Pakistan. Most of his invaluable papers and articles are buried in the files of literary and academic journals and must be preserved in book form.

Dr Muhammad Sabir died in Karachi on November 8, 2009.