ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books An Introduction To Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) Family and Social Milieu Born in the twilight of the Mughal Era in the Indian subcontinent to a distinguished family, Sayyid Ahmad Khan is the eldest of the five prominent Muslim modernists whose influence on Islamic thought and polity was to shape and define Muslim responses to modernism in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Like the four--Sayyid Amîr Alî (1849-1928), Jamâl al-Dîn al-Afghânî (1838-1897), Nâmik Kemâl (1840-1888) and Shaykh Muhammad Abduh (ca.1850-1905)--Sayyid Ahmad Khan was deeply concerned with the state of Muslims in a world dominated by European colonizing powers. Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s forefathers claimed direct blood relationship with the Prophet of Islam through his daughter Fâtimah and son-in-law Alî.

They had migrated to Iran, then to Herat in Afghanistan and finally to Shahjahân Abâd, which the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahân had built in 1648 near old Delhi. Ahmad Khan’s father, Sayyid Muhammad Muttaqî, and mother, Aziz al-Nisa, were both endowed with great intellectual and spiritual qualities. Aziz al-Nisa was the oldest daughter of Khwajah Farîd al-Din Ahmad (1747-1828) whose family had originally migrated to Kashmir from Hamadan in Iran.

Khwajah Abd al-Azîz, the grandfather of Khwajah Farid, finally settled in Delhi where the future father-in-law of Ahmad Khan was born in 1747. The Khwajah family was a family of merchants while the Sayyid family belonged to the Mughal aristocracy. The great grandfather of Sayyid Muttaqi was a commanding office in Emperor Aurangzeb’s (1658-1707) army.

Emperor Alamgîr II (1754-1759) had bestowed the title of Jawâd Ali Khan and the rank of yak-hazari (commander of one thousand) on Sayyid Hadî, the father of Sayyid Muttaqî. Ahmad Khan’s father, Sayyid Muttaqî, was mystically inclined and frequently visited the monastery of Shah Ghulam Ali. His income was derived from the agricultural land and the pension granted by the Mughal Court which, in those uncertain times, was rather irregular and much less than the promised amount.

By the time of his marriage, Sayyid Muttaqî’s lofty ancestral house near Jamia Masjid in the prestigious northeast section of Delhi had become unsafe and unfit. He lacked the will and resources to restore it and after his marriage to Aziz al-Nisa, he moved in with his father-in-law who lived in a palatial mansion built by the famous architect Mehdi Qulî Khan.