Urdu Wikipedia ( ur, ), started in January 2004, is the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

, a free, open-content

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

. As of , it has articles, registered users and files, and it is the largest edition of Wikipedia by article count, and ranks 26th in terms of depth among Wikipedias. There were 3.7 million page views in December 2022.

History

Wikipedia started being multilingual in May 2001. At first, Urdu Wikipedia faced technical problems with the Urdu script font, but now this matter is mostly settled; some unsolved areas remain. Urdu is written in

Perso-Arabic script The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan ( Dari Persian) since the 7th ce ...

, a right-to-left

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...

. As a result, users sometimes need to configure their operating systems and web browsers accordingly. Currently Urdu Wikipedia uses "Urdu Naskh Asiatype" font, which was introduced and is freely distributed by BBC at BBC Urdu Service website. The font is primarily used for article bodies and headings. Urdu variation of

Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype, in collaboration w ...

is used for navigation links. Both of these fonts are variations of Naskh style. Some

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i variations of complex

Nasta'liq script ''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ''Nast ...

are also supported only as a secondary choice in

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...

definitions of

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...

, i.e. if default font is not found on client system, then Nasta'liq script is used. The translation of the Wikipedia interface and project information pages into Urdu is still in progress. Some pages about how to edit have been translated. In January 2016, Urdu Wikipedia ranked first in the number of articles as compared to other Indian languages. In

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, Urdu Wikipedia activities are hosted and promoted by the Dehalvi Wikimedia User Group. The group hosted its first educational program in

Deoband Deoband is a town and a municipality in Saharanpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, about 150 km from Delhi. Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary and one of the largest Islamic Institution of India is located there. Etymo ...

in February 2020. Urdu is the second most popular Wikipedia in Pakistan, behind English. It receives approximately 2 million pageviews in the country, and around 610 thousand in India, as of November 2022.

Milestones timeline

Users and editors

Urdu Wikipedia is having approximately 320 contributors per month. Most users are from Pakistan, although there are many users from India as well. There also notable users from Saudi Arabia. Much like the rest of Indic languages, Urdu suffers from an acute shortage of contributors due to various reasons. Ahmed Nisar, a contributor of Urdu Wikipedia from India, claims that some of the reasons is the preference of the people for English language media, as well the lack of Urdu speaking experts which are well versed in various aspects of the current affairs.

References

External links

Official handle of Urdu Wikipedia on Facebook

Official handle of Urdu Wikipedia on TwitterOfficial handle of Urdu Wikipedia on Instagram
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Urdu Wikipedia Urdu Wikipedia ( ur, ), started in January 2004, is the Urdu language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-content encyclopedia. As of , it has articles, registered users and files, and it is the largest edition of Wikipedia by article co ...

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Urdu Wikipedia mobile version
{{Wikipedias Wikipedias by language Internet properties established in 2004 Languages on Wikipedia Urdu-language websites Urdu-language encyclopedias American online encyclopedias

History

Milestones timeline

Users and editors

See also

References

External links