The Mughal Empire, also known as the Mogul Empire, began in the subcontinent of India in 1526. With roots that originated in Central Asia, most particularly Mongolia, and also Persia, and with a government that initiated with the Timurid dynasty, this empire became for many years one of the most powerful and most extended in the history of India. This empire began with the rise to power of their most important leader, Babur, over the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, and ended with the arrival of the British East India Company.
Although Persian was the most common and the "official" language spoken in the Mughal Empire, the elite classes of the kingdom spoke a Persian-language influenced dialect that was later called the Urdu. As the use of the language extended, and especially after the 1700´s, the rulers of the Mughal empire decided to formalize the use of Urdu, they themselves using it as their formal language. Urdu then became the official language of use within the Mughal Empire.