Aab-e hayat is a commentary (or tazkira

Tazkira

Tazkira is one of the principal forms of Persian literature and also Urdu literature. Tazkira is a type biographical anthology, almost always of poetry alone...

) on Urdu poetry written by Muhammad Husain Azad

Muhammad Husain Azad

Muhammad Husain Azad , known as Ehsan Azad, was an Urdu writer, who is regarded as the best Urdu prose writer. He wrote prose as well as poetry but he is mostly remembered for his prose. He contribution and impact is immense to Urdu literature and prose in particular. He is famous for his...

in 1880. The book was described as "canon-forming" and "the most often reprinted, and most widely read, Urdu book of the past century."

Aab-e hayat became the single most influential source for both anecdotes and historical theories about Urdu poetry. Its second edition in 1883 was incorporated into the official curriculum at Punjab University and several other schools.

It provides an important perspective on the origin of Urdu:

"Although the tree of Urdu grew in the ground of Sanskrit and Bhasha, it has flowered in the breezes of Persian. ..

.. there is usually some one place for establishing its genuineness and its goodness or badness, as for coins there is a mint. What is the reason that, in the beginning, Delhi was the mint of the language? The reason is that it was the seat of government. Only at the court were the hereditary nobility and the sons of the élite scholars in their own right. Their gatherings brought together people of learning and accomplishment, and through their auspicious influence made their temperaments the mold of the art and refinement and subtlety and wit of everything. Thus conversation, dress, courtesy and manners, .."