Urdu Script: Zero to Reading
Read and write Nastaliq in 8 weeks — from your first letter to your first ghazal.
What you'll learn
- Recognise and write all letters of the Urdu alphabet in every position
- Master joining rules and read fluent Nastaliq, including rasm-ul-khat quirks
- Read real-world Urdu: signboards, headlines, and simple prose
- Read your first ghazal in the original script with correct talaffuz
- Build a daily 15-minute practice habit that sticks
Course curriculum
4 modules · 18 lessons · 18 hours. Green lessons are free previews.
- Why Nastaliq looks the way it doesPreview12:00
- The alif family: ا آPreview16:00
- The be family: ب پ ت ٹ ث22:00
- The jeem family: ج چ ح خ21:00
- Quiz: Letter recognition I10:00
- The four forms: initial, medial, final, isolated24:00
- The rebels: letters that never connect forward18:00
- Joining practice: your first 50 words26:00
- Nuqte and dots — reading with precision19:00
- Quiz: Joining rules12:00
- Aerab: zabar, zer, pesh and reading without them23:00
- Reading signboards and headlines20:00
- Common words you already know22:00
- Assignment: Write your name and address in Urdu20:00
- Reading a sher of Ghalib, letter by letter25:00
- Talaffuz: pronouncing like an ahl-e-zabaan21:00
- Reading practice: five famous ashaar24:00
- Quiz: Final reading assessment20:00
About this course
The course that has opened the door of Urdu to thousands who thought the script was beyond them. Dr. Ayesha Siddiqui teaches the Nastaliq script the intuitive way: letters in families, joining rules as patterns (not memorisation), and real words from the very first lesson. By week four you're reading signboards; by week eight, the poetry you've always loved in transliteration — in its own script, at last.
Requirements
- No prior knowledge of Urdu needed
- Ability to speak/understand Hindustani helps but isn't required
Your teacher
Dr. Ayesha Siddiqui
Urdu Language · JNU, PhD Linguistics
Dr. Ayesha Siddiqui wrote her doctoral thesis on Urdu orthography at JNU and has spent 15 years turning that scholarship into the gentlest possible on-ramp to the script. Her method — letters in families, words from day one, poetry labels from week two — has taught over 60,000 learners to read and write Urdu. She believes the script is not a wall but a doorway, and her students walk through it faster than they ever expect.
View full profile →Student reviews
12 June 2026
At 43, I finally read my grandmother's letters. I cried at lesson 61 when I read my first sher of Ghalib unaided. Dr. Siddiqui's letter-families method just works.
28 May 2026
I tried three apps and two books before this. The joining-rules module alone is worth the price — eight weeks in and I'm reading Rekhta pages in the original script.
2 May 2026
Beautifully paced and the worksheets are excellent. Would love even more headline-reading practice in module three, but the poetry finale is perfect.