Urdu literature (Urdu: ا اردو ادب"Urdu Adab") has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. While it tends to be heavily dominated by poetry, the range of expression achieved in the voluminous library of a few major verse forms, especially the ghazal and nazm, has led to its continued development and expansion into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana. Being the national language, Urdu literature is mostly popular in Pakistan. Additionally, it enjoys substantial popularity in India and is widely understood in Afghanistan. Urdu is finding interest in foreign countries primarily through South Asians.

Urdu literature may be said to find its provenance some time around the 14th century in North India amongst the sophisticated gentry of Persian courts. The presence of the Muslim gentry in a largely Hindu India, while clearly acknowledged, did not so nearly dominate the consciousness of the Urdu poet as much as did the continuing traditions of Islam and Persia. The very color of the Urdu language, with a vocabulary almost evenly split between Sanskrit-derived Prakrit and Arabo-Persian words, was a reflection of the newness of cultural amalgamation and yet the insistence on retaining what was best and most beautiful about the lands of Afghanistan and Persia.