Overview
Dr. Timsal Masud is a scholar of Hindi and Urdu literature and an Instructor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. His teaching and research focus on Hindi and Urdu language and literature, with particular emphasis on nineteenth-century Awadh, the literary cultures of Lucknow, Urdu marsiya poetry, and the historical relationship between Hindi and Urdu.
Masud has taught Hindi and Urdu at several major U.S. universities, including Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His courses range from elementary to advanced language instruction as well as content-based courses on South Asian literature and culture. He has also developed and published Hindi and Urdu language-learning materials, including Urdu-namah: A Textbook for Intermediate and Advanced Urdu, Hindi-namah: A Textbook for Intermediate and Advanced Hindi, Urdu Dictionary for Beginners, and Reading Urdu: Novice to Intermediate.
His scholarship combines literary research with textual editing, translation, and the study of manuscript and print cultures. He has produced a three-volume critical edition of 111 marsiyas by the nineteenth-century Urdu poet Mir Anis and has edited and translated several important works relating to the literary and cultural history of Awadh. His publications also include The Royal Stage of Lucknow, a study of nineteenth-century Awadh’s theatrical tradition, and editions of rare Urdu manuscripts and literary works.
His current research centers on Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh, and his literary and artistic legacy. He is currently translating Wajid Ali Shah’s Ishq-namah, a substantial Urdu masnavi of approximately 10,000 couplets, into English for publication by HarperCollins India. The project examines the literary, cultural, musical, and performative dimensions of the Awadh court while bringing an understudied Urdu text to a wider scholarly and general readership.
Masud also has a longstanding interest in Urdu manuscript and print culture and in the ways that linguistic and literary traditions changed with the advent of print. Across his research, teaching, and public scholarship, he is particularly interested in the shared linguistic and cultural heritage of Hindi and Urdu and in challenging rigid distinctions between the two traditions.
Office Hours
Elementary Hindi 101 - Wednesday 10 AM – 11 AM at Perkins Library
Intermediate Hindi 203 - Wednesday 3 PM to 4 PM at Perkins Library