# You grammatize in Persian and philosophize in Urdu **Presenter**: [[Vipin Krishna]] **Session**: [[Session 11. Bhāṣā-Persianate Interactions]] **Abstract**: Mirza Muhammad Hasan Qatil (1758-1818) was a collaborator of Inshaullah Khan Insha (1752-1817), popularly purported to be the first Urdu grammarian. Qatil coauthored the Darya-i-Latafat along with Inshaullah Khan Insha in the beginning of the 19th century. Born into a North Indian khatri family and Christened Divani Singh, Singh eventually converted to Islam around the 1750s thereby changing his name to Mirza Muhammad Hasan Qatil. While Khatris were known to be proficient in Persian, and often used it as a language of trade in the 18th and early 19th-centuries, Qatil's writings suggests that he had already begun using ethnological observations and local multilingual registers in order to write philosophical tracts in Urdu. This paper will examine Qatil's work, and particularly his philosophy of language, and his philosophy of unity or "aap gyaan," and argue that Qatil's endeavors lay in expressing a complex philosophy of logic borne out of a multilingual context. Finally, this paper shall go on to suggest reasons as to why these theories of Qatil fell into disrepute during the nationalist period, and why it may be necessary to once again these vernacular philosophical North Indian tracts.