General Knowledge

Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Awzalagh al-Farabi

2011-03-28T15:18:00.017+05:00

1. Biography Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Awzalagh al-Farabi ابو نصر محمّد ابن طرخان ابن اوظلاغ الفارابی was born in ah 259/ad 870. The existing variations in the basic accounts of al-Farabi's origins and pedigree indicate that they were not recorded during his lifetime or soon thereafter by anyone with concrete information, but due to his work In the arena of metaphysics ( he has been rightly be acclaimed as one of the greatest of Islamic philosophers of all time and some designated him 'Father of Islamic Neoplatonism'). The information were gathered for record was found after finishing his early school years in Farab فاراب and Bukharaبغارہ , Farabi moved to Baghdad بغدادin 901 to pursue higher studies. Al-Farabi was known to the Arabs as the 'Second Master' (after Aristotle), and with good reason. It is unfortunate that his name has been overshadowed by those of later philosophers such as Ibn Sina, for al-Farabi was one of the world's great philosophers and much more original than many of his Islamic successors. A philosopher, logician and musician, he was also a major political scientist. Al-Farabi has left us no autobiography and consequently, relatively little is known for certain about his life. His philosophical legacy, however, is large. In the arena of metaphysics he has been designated the 'Father of Islamic Neoplatonism', and while he was also saturated with Aristotelianism and certainly deploys the vocabulary of Aristotle, it is this Neoplatonic dimension which dominates much of his corpus.

Persian origin The oldest known document regarding his background, written by the medieval Arab historian Ibn Abī Uṣaibi ابن ابی عصید (died in 1269), mentions that al-Farabi's fore-fathers were of Persian descent۔ Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Shahrūzī محمّد ابن محمود الشیرازی who lived around 1288 A.D. and has written an early biography also has stated that Farabi hailed from a Persian family. Ibn al-Nadimابن الندیم , a younger contemporary of Farabi and a close friend of Yaḥyā ibn Adī یحی' ابن عدّی(Farabi's closest and most successful student), states Farabi's origins to lie in Faryāb in Khorasanخراسان . Faryāb is also the name of a province in today's Afghanistan. The Dehkhoda Dictionary - based on Ibn Abī Uṣaibia's accounts - also calls him Persian (فارسی المنتسب‎), mentioning the fact that his father was a member of the Persian-speaking Samanid court of Central Asia. The older Persian form Parabپاراب (Persian word meaning cultivated land by streams) is given in the historical account Ḥudūd al Ālam حدودالعالم or his birthplace. Farabi has in a number of his works references and glosses in Persianفارسی and Sogdian pointing to an Iranian-speaking Central Asian origin. A Persian origin is also discussed by Peter J. King and some other western sources as well a comprehensive source on Islamic Philosophy written in Arabic by the Egyptian scholar Prof. Hanna Fakhuriحنّافخری .

Turkic origin Al-Farabi's face appeared on the currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan جمہوریہ قازقستان ۔The oldest known reference to a possible Turkic origin is given by the medieval historian Ibn Khallekān (died in 1282), who claimed that Farabi was born in the small village of Wasij near Farab (in what is today Otrar, Kazakhstanقازقستان ) of Turkic parents, and in the following decades and centuries, many others copied his work. But scholars criticize Ibn Khallekān's statement, as it is only aimed to ridicule the earlier reports of Ibn Abī Uṣaibia, and seems to have the sole purpose to prove that Farabi was a Turk. In this context, it is criticized that Ibn Khallekān was also the first to use the additional nisba نسبت(surname) "al-Turkالترک " - a nisba Farabi never had. Ibn Khallekān's statement also contradicts Ibn al-Nadim and Yaḥyā ibn Adī, both contemporaries of Farabi, who had reported that Farabi's birthplace was Faryāb in Khorasan (in modern Afghanistan). Ibn Khallekān's accounts are also partially contradicted by the above mentioned fact that Farabi has in many of his writings references and glosses in Persian, Sogdian, and Greek, but not in Turkish.

While his name tends to be overshadowed by that of Ibn Sinaابن سینا , a well-known story tells how Ibn Sina sought in vain to understand Aristotle's Metaphysics, and it was only through a book by al-Farabi on the intentions of the Metaphysics that understanding finally came to him. However, unlike Ibn Sina, al-Farabi has left us no autobiography and we know far less about his life in consequence. Considerable myth has become attached to the man: it is unlikely, for example, that he really spoke more than seventy languages, and we may also query his alleged ascetic lifestyle. We do know that he was born in Turkestan and later studied Arabic in Baghdad; it has been claimed that most of his books were written here. He travelled to Damascus(دمشق) , Egypt(مصر) , Harran and Aleppo, and in the latter city the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla سیف الدّولہbecame his patron. He became one of the constant companions of the King, and it was here at Halab that his fame spread far and wide. During his early years he was a Qazi ( - قاضیJudge), but later on he took up teaching as his profession. During the course of his career, he had suffered great hardships and at one time was the caretaker of a garden. He died a bachelor in Damascus on2nd Rajab 339 A.H./14th December 950 C.E. at the age of 80 years.

Contributions:

Farabi made notable contributions to the fields of logic, mathematics, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology and sociology. As a philosopher, he may be classed as a Neoplatonist who tried to synthesize Platonism and Aristotelism with theology and he wrote such rich commentaries on Aristotle's physics, meteorology, logic, etc., in addition to a large number of books on several other subjects embodying his original contribution, that he came to be known as the "al-Mou'allim al-Thani" ( المعلّم الثانی'Second Teacher') Aristotle being the First. One of the important contributions of Farabi was to make the study of logic more easy by dividing it into two categories viz., Takhayyul ( تخیّلidea) and Thubut ( ثبوتproof). In sociology he wrote several books out of which Ara Ahl al-Madina al-Fadila(آراء اہل مدینۃالفضیلہ) became famous. His books on psychology and metaphysics were largely based on his own work: one of his works is entitled Kitab al-musiqa al-kabir (کتاب الموسقا الکبیر -The Great Book of Music). However, perhaps the book for which he is best known is that whose title is abbreviated to al-Madina al-fadila ( - المدینہ الفضیلہThe Virtuous City), and which is often compared, misleadingly in view of its Neoplatonic orientation, to Plato's Republic. Other major titles from al-Farabi's voluminous corpus included the Risala fi'l-'aql ( - رسالہ فی العقلEpistle on the Intellect), Kitab al-huruf ( - کتاب الحروفThe Book of Letters) and Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum ( - کتاب الاحساءالعلومThe Book of the Enumeration of the Sciences).

2. Metaphysics Majid Fakhry (1983) has described al-Farabi as 'the founder of Arab Neo-Platonism and the first major figure in the history of that philosophical movement since Proclus'. This should be borne in mind as we survey the metaphysics of the philosopher whom the Latin Middle Ages knew as Abunaser (ابونثر)and whom the Arabs designated the 'Second Master المعلّم الثانی ' (after Aristotleارسطو ). It should be noted that al-Farabi was an Aristotelian as well as a Neoplatonist: he is said, for example, to have read On the Soul two hundred times and even the Physics forty times. It should then come as no surprise that he deploys Aristotelian terminology, and indeed there are areas of his writings that are quite untouched by Neoplatonism. Furthermore, al-Farabi tried to demonstrate the basic agreement between Aristotle and Plato on such matters as the creation of the world, the survival of the soul and reward and punishment in the afterlife. In al-Farabi's conception of God, essence and existence fuse absolutely with no possible separation between the two. However, there is no getting away from the fact that it is the Neoplatonic element which dominates so much else of al-Farabi's work. We see this, for example, in the powerful picture of the transcendent God of Neoplatonism which dominates al-Madina al-fadilaالمدینہ الفضیلہ. We see this too in al-Farabi's references to God in a negative mode, describing the deity by what he is not: he has no partner, he is indivisible and indefinable. And perhaps we see the Neoplatonic element most of all in the doctrine of emanation as it is deployed in al-Farabi's hierarchy of being.

At the top of this hierarchy is the Divine Being whom al-Farabi characterizes as 'the First'. From this emanates a second being which is the First Intellect. (This is termed, logically, 'the Second', that is, the Second Being). Like God, this being is an immaterial substance. A total of ten intellects emanate from the First Being. The First Intellect comprehends God and, in consequence of that comprehension, produces a third being, which is the Second Intellect. The First Intellect also comprehends its own essence, and the result of this comprehension is the production of the body and soul of al-sama' al-ula السمع الاولی', the First Heaven. Each of the following emanated intellects are associated with the generation of similar astral phenomena, including the fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Of particular significance in the emanationist hierarchy is the Tenth Intellect: it is this intellect which constitutes the real bridge between the heavenly and terrestrial worlds. This Tenth Intellect (variously called by the philosophers the active or agent intellect in English, the nous poiétikos in Greek, the dator formarum in Latin and the 'aql al-fa''alعقل الفعال in Arabic) was responsible both for actualizing the potentiality for thought in man's intellect and emanating form to man and the sublunary world. With regard to the latter activity, it has been pointed out that here the active intellect takes on the role of Plotinus' Universal Soul.

In Farabian metaphysics, then, the concept of Neoplatonic emanation replaces that of Qur'anic creation ex nihilo (see Neoplatonism in Islamic philosophy §2). Furthermore, the Deity at the top of the Neoplatonic hierarchy is portrayed in a very remote fashion. Al-Farabi's philosophers' God does not act directly on the sublunary world: much is delegated to the Active Intellect. However, God for al-Farabi certainly has an indirect 'responsibility' for everything, in that all things emanate from him.

It is the second of these works, Risala fi'l-'aql رسالہ فی العقل, which provides perhaps the most useful key to al-Farabi's complex theories of intellection. In this work he divides 'aql عقل(intellect or reason) into six major categories in an attempt to elaborate the various meanings of the Arabic word 'aqlعقل . First, there is what might be termed discernment or prudence; the individual who acts for the good is characterized by this faculty, and there is clearly some overlap with the fourth kind of intellect, described below. The second of al-Farabi's intellects is that which has been identified with common sense; this intellect has connotations of 'obviousness' and 'immediate recognition' associated with it. Al-Farabi's third intellect is natural perception. He traces its source to Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, and it is this intellect which allows us to be certain about fundamental truths. It is not a skill derived from the study of logic, but it may well be inborn. The fourth of the six intellects may be characterized as 'conscience': )this is drawn by the philosopher from Book VI of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. It is a quality whereby good might be distinguished from evil and results from considerable experience of life(. Al-Farabi's fifth intellect is both the most difficult and the most important. He gives most space to its description in his Risala fi'l-'aql رسالہ فی العقل and considers it to be of four different types: potential intellect, actual intellect, acquired intellect and agent or active intellect. 'Aql bi'l-quwwa عقل بلقوہ (potential intellect) is the intellect which, in Fakhry's words, has the capacity 'of abstracting the forms of existing entities with which it is ultimately identified' (Fakhry 1983: 121). Potential intellect can thus become 'aql bi'l-fi’l عقل بی الفیہ (actual intellect). In its relationship to the actual intellect, the third sub-species of intellect, 'aql mustafad عقل مستفادہ (acquired intellect) is, to use Fakhry's words again, the 'the agent of actualization' to the actualized object. Finally, there is the 'aql al-fa''al عقل فعال (agent or active intellect), which was described in above and need not be elaborated upon again.

4. Political philosophy The best known Arabic source for al-Farabi's political philosophy is al-Madina al-fadilaالمدینہ الفضیلہ . While this work undoubtedly embraces Platonic themes, it is in no way an Arabic clone of Plato's Republic. This becomes very clear right at the beginning of al-Farabi's work, Al-Farabi has a number of political divisions for his world. He identifies, for example, three types of society which are perfect and grades these according to size. His ideal virtuous city, which gives its name to the whole volume, is that which wholeheartedly embraces the pursuit of goodness and happiness and where the virtues will clearly abound. This vicious city is compared in its function to the limbs of a perfectly healthy body. By stark contrast, al-Farabi identifies four different types of corrupt city: these are the ignorant city (al-madina al-jahiliyyaالمدینہ الجاہلیہ ), the dissolute city (al-madina al-fasiqaالمدینہ الفاسقہ ), the turncoat city (al-madina al-mubaddala المدینہ المبادّلہ) and the straying city (al-madina al-dalla المدینہ الدلّہ). The souls of many of the inhabitants of such cities face ultimate extinction, while those who have been the cause of their fall face eternal torment. In itemizing four corrupt societies, al-Farabi was surely aware of Plato's own fourfold division of imperfect societies in the Republic into diarchy(مخلوط) , oligarchy (طبقہ امرا و رؤساء /مراعاتیافتہ), democracy (جمہوریت)and tyranny( آمرانہ/جبری/جابرانہ) . The resemblance, however, is more one of structure (four divisions) rather than of content. At the heart of al-Farabi's political philosophy is the concept of happiness (sa'ada سعادۃ ). The virtuous society (al-ijtima' al-fadil الاجتماع الفاضل ) is defined as that in which people cooperate to gain happiness. The virtuous city (al-madina al-fadilaالمدینۃ الفضیلہ ) is one where there is cooperation in achieving happiness. The virtuous world (al-ma'mura al-fadilaالمعمورۃالفضیلہ ) will only occur when all its constituent nations collaborate to achieve happiness. Al-Farabi realizes that such a society is rare and will require a very specific set of historical circumstances in order to be realized, which means very few societies will ever be able to attain this goal. Al-Farabi followed the Greek paradigm and the highest rank of happiness was allocated to his ideal sovereign whose soul was 'united as it were with the Active Intellect'.

5. Music and sociology Farabi wrote books on early Muslim sociology and a notable book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa (کتاب الموسیقاThe Book of Music). According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Mehdi Aminrazavi: the book of Kitab al-Musiqa is in reality a study of the theory of Persian music of his day although in the West it has been introduced as a book on Arab music. He presents philosophical principles about music, its cosmic qualities and its influences. Al-Farabi's treatise Meanings of the Intellect dealt with music therapy, where he discussed the therapeutic effects of music on the soul.

6. Influence The impact of al-Farabi's work on Ibn Sina was not limited merely to illuminating Aristotle's Metaphysics. It was with good reason that al-Farabi was designated the 'Second Master المعلّم الثانی ' (after Aristotle). One modern scholar recently acknowledged the dependence of Ibn Sina on al-Farabi in a book dealing with both which he entitled The Two Farabis (Farrukh 1944). And if Aquinas (§9) did not derive his essence-existence doctrine from al-Farabi but from the Latinized Ibn Sina, as is generally assumed, there is no doubt that Farabian concepts of essence and existence provided a base for the elaborated metaphysics of Ibn Sina and thence of Aquinas. Finally, the briefest of comparisons between the tenfold hierarchy of intellection produced by al-Farabi and the similar hierarchy espoused by Ibn Sina, each of which gives a key role to the Tenth Intellect, shows that in matters of emanation, hierarchy and Neoplatonic intellection, Ibn Sina owes a considerable intellectual debt to his predecessor.

Al-Farabi influenced many other thinkers as well. A glance at the period between ah 256/ad 870 and ah 414/ad 1023 and at four of the major thinkers who flourished in this period serves to confirm this: Yahya ibn 'Adi (یحی' ابن عدّی) , Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani (ابو سلیمان السیستانی) , Abu 'l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-'Amiri(ابو احسن محمّد ابن یوسف العامری) and Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi(ابو حيّان التوحیدی) may all be said to constitute in one form or another a 'Farabian School'. The Monophysite Yahya ibn 'Adi studied in Baghdad under al-Farabi and others. Like his master, Yahya was devoted to the study of logic; like his master also, Yahya held that there was a real link between reason, ethics and politics.

Whether or not al-Farabi actually intended to outline a political programme in his writings remains a matter of dispute amongst academics. In his admittedly complex theories of epistemology, al-Farabi has both an Aristotelian and Neoplatonic dimension, neither of which is totally integrated with the other. His influence was wide and extended not only to major Islamic philosophers such as Ibn Sina who came after him, and to lesser mortals such as Yahya ibn 'Adi(یحی'ابن عدّی) , al-Sijistani(السیستانی) , al-'Amiri(العامری) and al-Tawhidi(التوحیدی) , but also to major thinkers of Christian medieval Europe including Thomas Aquinas. Henry Corbin, says that his ideas should be understood as a "prophetic philosophy" instead of being interpreted politically. On the other hand, Charles Butterworth contends that nowhere in his work does al-Farabi speak of a prophet-legislator or revelation (even the word philosophy is scarcely mentioned), and the main discussion that takes place concerns the positions of "king" and "statesmen". Occupying a middle position is David Reisman, who like Corbin believes that al-Farabi did was using different types of society as examples, in the context of an ethical discussion, to show what effect correct or incorrect thinking could have. Lastly, Joshua Parens argues that al-Farabi was slyly asserting that a pan-Islamic society could not be made, by using reason to show how many conditions (such as moral and deliberative virtue) would have to be met, thus leading the reader to conclude that humans are not fit for such a society. Some other authors like Mykhaylo Yakubovych attest that for al-Farabi religion (milla ملّت) and philosophy (falsafaفلسفہ ) consituted the same praxeological value (i.e. basis for amal al-fadhil – عمل الفاضل"virtuos deed"), while its epistemological level (ilm – علم "knowledge") was different.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo

2010-10-25T11:17:00.014+05:00

INTRODUCTION:
Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), the founder of the Tableeghi Jama’at (تبلیغی جماعت) of South Asian subcontinent, is arguably one of the most influential, yet least well-known , figures of the twentieth century Islam. Despite his enormous contribution towards the development of a powerful grass root Islamic Da’wah movement, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) has not received much attention in the literature on modern Islamic movements. Most of the Western, and even Muslim, scholarships have remained occupied with the more spectacular and dramatic manifest ions of Islamic revivalist upsurge. The available literature on Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) and his Tableeghi movement (تبلیغی جماعت) is mostly in Urdu and that too consists mainly of inspirational works by its leaders and devotional writings by its followers and supporters.

EARLY LIFE:

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was born in 1885 (1302 Hijri), in Mewat (which was inhabited by Rajput tribes known as Meos. The area to the south of Delhi where the Meos have been settled from the olden days is called Mewat, a small town in the United Province of British India in a family of religious scholars. His childhood was spent in maternal grandfather's home in Kandhla, and with his father at Nizamuddin. In those days, the Kandhla family was the cradle of godliness and piety so much so that reports of the high religiosity nightly devotions and Zikr and Tilawat of its members, both male and female, would seem imaginary and fictitious to the faint-hearted men of our time. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) received his early religious education at home like all other children in the family; then Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) began his education in the maktab, according to the family tradition, learnt the Quran by heart. The learning of the Quran was so common in the family, that in the one-and-a-half row of worshippers in the family ‏Masjid, there was not a single non Hafiz except the Muezzin and later went to the famous center of Islamic education in Deoband where he studied the Qur’an, Hadith, Fiqh and other Islamic sciences under the early Deoband luminaries. After completing his education at Deoband, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) took up a teaching position at another famous Madarsah Mazaharul Uloom (مدرسۂ مظہرالعلوم) in Saharanpur (United Province of British India)

FAMILY:

Maulana Mohammad Ismail Meo (مولانا محمّد اسماعیل میو) the father of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) died on Saturday 26th February, 1898 (5th Shawal 1315 Hijri) in Khajoor Wali Masjid at the Tiraha of Bahram in Delhi, he was very fond of the recitation of the Quran. He was very particular about some member of his family keeping vigil in the night. His second son, Maulana Yahya Meo مولانا يحی' میو, used to study till midnight, and, then the Maulana himself got up and Maulana Yahya went to bed and for the last part of the night, he woke up his eldest son, Maulana Mohammad Meo مولانا محمّد میو)). Bi Safia, the mother of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), had learnt the Quran by heart and attained great distinction in it. It was a regular practice with her to recite the whole of the Quran and additional ten Juze (part) every day during Ramadan. She, thus, completed the Quran and was so fluent in it that her household duties did not suffer on account of it. She, generally, kept herself engaged in some work while doing the recitation.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was Ammi Bi's favorite child. She used to say; to him ”I feel the aroma of the holy Companions in you.” Sometimes, placing her hand on his back, she would say,”How is it that I see figures resembling the holy Companions moving along with you?”.

NEED OF TABLEEGHI JAMA’AT (تبلیغی جماعت)

It was at the point in his life when he took up a teaching position at Madarsah Mazaharul Uloom (مدرسۂ مظہرالعلوم). Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) became aware of the "dismal Islamic situation" in the Mewat region near Dehli where majority of Muslims were living a life that had very little to do with Islamic teachings and practices. At the time, some Muslim leaders feared that Muslims were losing their religious identity to the majority Hindu culture. Meos were generally benighted Muslims and lacked the necessary acumen required to resist the cultural and religious influence of Hindus.

Owing to the negligence of the Muslims religious teachers, the moral arid religious condition of the Mewatis had sunk so low that there was little to distinguish between their beliefs and practices and wholesale apostasy. Even non-Muslim historians have commented at length on their estrangement with Islam. The moral and religious condition of the Meos in Mewat can be imagin in the light of following extracts:

The Alwar Gazetteer of 1878, written by Major Powlett, syay:

“All the Meos are, now, Muslims, but only in name. Their village deities are the same as those of the Hindu landlords, and they celebrate several Hindu festivals. Holi is a season of special rejoicing among the Mewatis and they observe it like their own festivals, such as, Moharrum, ‘Id and Shab-i-Barat. The same is the case with Janam Ashtami, Dussehra and Diwali. The Meos engage the services of the Brahmins to fix the dates of marriages. They have Hindu names, with the exception of the word ‘Ram’, and their last name, often, is ‘Singh’, though not as frequently as ‘Khan’. Like Ahirs and Gujars, the Mewatis, too, observe Amawas as a holiday on which they abstain from work. When they build a well, they begin with the construction of a parapet in the name of Beeriyi or Hanuman, but when it comes to pillage, they do not show much reverence to the Hindu temples and other places of religious significance. If, on such an occasion, their attention is drawn to the sanctity of these establishments, they, unhesitatingly, says, ‘You are "Does" and we are "Meos".’ Meos are, largely, ignorant of their faith, i. e. Islam. Very few of them know the Kalima,’ and fewer still observe Namaz regularly. About the hours and rules of namaz, their ignorance is complete. This is the state of the Meos of Alwar. In the British territory of Gurgaon, the position is a little better because of the Madrassas. In some parts of Alwar, also, where the Masjids have been built, the religious duties are observed to some extent. A few of them know the Kalima and offer up namaz and an attachment for the Madrassas, also, is found among them. As we have seen earlier, the initial ceremonies of marriage are performed by the Brahmins, but the real ceremony (of nikah) is performed by the Qazi. Men wear dhoti and loin-cloth. The pajamas are not worn at all. Their dress, thus, is wholly Hinduised. Even ornaments of gold are worn by men.”

At another place, Major Powlett writes:

“The Meos are half-Hindu by their habits. Mosques are rarely to be seen in their villages. There are only eight mosques in the fifty villages of the tehsil of Tijarah. Leaving aside the temples, the places of worship of the Meos are very much similar to those of their Hindu neighbors. These are known, for instance as Paanch Peera, Bhaisa and Chahand or Khera Deo is consecrated to the service of Maha Davi where animals are offered as a sacrifice. In Shab-i-Barat, the banner of Syed Salar Masud Ghazi is worishipped in all Meo villages.”

Similarly, ii the Gazetteer of Gurgaon (1910), it is stated that ‘‘the Meos, still, are a very loose and careless type of Muslims. They share most of tile customs of the neighboring community specially those which possess an element of fun and merriment. Their basic rule seems to be to observe the religious celebrations of both the communities and disregard the religious duties of either. Lately, some religious teachers have appeared in Mewat and a few Meos have started to keep the fasts of Ramzan and to build mosques in their villages and observe namaz. Their women, too, have taken to wearing Pyjamas instead of the Hindu Chagras. All these are the signs of religious awakening.”

The Gazetteer of Bharatpur, again, says:

“The customs of Meos are a mixture of Hindu and Muslim customs. They observe circumcision, perform nikah and bury their dead. They make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Syed Salar Masud Giiazj at Bahraich, and attach a great importance to the vow taken under his banner, and consider it a religious duty to fulfill it. They, also, visit the other shrines of India, but do not perform the Hajj. Among the Hindu festivals, they celebrate Holi and Diwali. They do not marry in the family or in their own branch or subdivision of the clan (گوتھ), girls do not have a share in ancestral property, and they give mixed Hindu and Muslim names to their children. They are, wholly, illiterate and have a fair number of bards and minstrels among them whom they pay liberally. Many quatrains on the themes of agriculture and rural life are popular which they love to recite. Their speech is rough arid coarse, and the manner of addressing both men and women is the same. Intoxicants are widely in use. They are extremely weak of faith and highly superstitious, and believe in omens and auguries. Both male and female dresses are Hinduised.

Moral virtues

All the same, the Meos are distinguished for some excellent moral qualities and their vices and weaknesses are in the nature of the evil ways and practices that become a part of the moral and social pattern of brave and adventurous races as a result of want of education, isolation from the civilized world and indifference towards religion. These were rampant even among the Arabs during the Age of Ignorance. Natural talents and capabilities had taken a wrong turn owing to the perversity of the environment. Chivalry had degenerated into banditry, manliness had found expression in mutual warfare and bloodshed, sense of pride and self-respect, with no better purpose to serve, had sought fulfillment in the defense of imaginary standards of honor and renown, and high mindedness, for its display, had adopted the path of pomp and flourish on petty occasions in the family or clan. In brief, God-given gifts of mind and character were being put to unworthy use; otherwise there was no dearth of virtue and merit among the,

Rugged simplicity, hardihood and firmness of purpose were the chief characteristics of the Mewatis in which they were far superior to the urban Muslim population. It was on account of these qualities that in spite of having drifted so far away from Islam, the floodtide of Apostasy could not submerge the territory of Mewat even in the darkest period of its history.

FORMATION OF TABLEEGHI JAMA’AT (تبلیغی جماعت)

Tableeghi Jamaat (تبلیغ) originated in 1926 (1344 Hijri) in Mewat, in north India. Presently; it includes the Gurgaon district of the Punjab, the native states of Alwar and Bharatpur and the district of Mathura of the United Provinces. Like all other regions, its boundaries, too, have been changing from time to time and the dimensions of the old Mewat must have been different from what they are now. The link with Mewat, was established in his lifetime. It is related that, once, he went out in the hope of finding a Muslim whom he could bring to the mosque and offer Salaat with him On meeting some Muslim laborers, he inquired from them where they were going.? "We are going in search of work", they replied. "How much do you expect to earn?' asked the Maulana. The laborers, thereupon, told him about the daily wages they, generally, received. "If you get the same here," the Maulana asked, "What is the use of going elsewhere” The laborers agreed and the Maulana took them to the mosque and began to teach the Salaat and the Quran. He would pay them their wages every day and keep them engaged in their lessons. In a few days, they developed the habit of offering up Salaat. Such was the beginning of the Madrassa of Bangle Wali Masjid, and these laborers were its first scholars. After it, about ten Mewati students always remained in the Madrassa and their meals used to come from the house.

The new movement met with dramatic success in relatively short period of time, thanks to Maulana Muhammad Ilyas’s (مولانا محمّد الیاس) utmost devotion, untiring efforts and sincerity of purpose. As a result many Muslims joined Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) to preach the message of Islam in every town and village of Mewat. The rapid success of his efforts can be seen from the fact that the first Tableeghi conference (تبلیغ) held in November 1941(Zeqa'ad 1360 Hijri) in Mewat was attended by 25,000 people many of them had walked on foot for ten to fifteen miles to attend the conference. Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi, the founder of the Jama’at-e-Islami paid glowing tribute to the spectacular successes of the Da’wah efforts of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) in Mewat and elsewhere in sub-continent and described the Tableeghi movement (تبلیغ) as a major step toward the Islamization of Indian Muslim society.

Beginnings

Maulana Mohammad Ismail Meo came to live in Basti Nizamuddin which was the gateway of Mewat, and much before the arrival of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), seeds of loyalty and devotion of his family had been sown on its soil.

When the followers of Maulana Mohammad Ismail Meo and Maulana Muhammad Meo came to know that their true successor, the son of Maulana Mohammad Ismail Meo and the brother of Maulana Mohammad Meo had come to live at Nizamuddin they, again, started coming to it and requested Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) for a visit so that the old suppliants of his family had an opportunity to renew the ties of fealty and spiritual allegiance.

Real remedy

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) felt that the only Way to the religious reform and correction of the Mewatis was promotion of religious knowledge and familiarization with the rules and principles of the Shariat. The inspiration for devoting his life to Islam came to Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) during his second pilgrimage to the Hejaz in 1926 (1360 Hijri).

Maulana Mohammad ismail Meo, and, after him, Maulana Mohammad Meo had adopted the same method. They used to keep the Mewati children with them and educate them in their Madrassa, and, then, send them back to Mewat to carry on the work of reform and guidance, and what little religious awareness was found there was owing to the efforts of these pioneers.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) went a step ahead and decided to establish Maktabs and Madrassas in Mewat itself so that the influence of Faith could spread to a wider area and the pace of change was accelerated.

Stipulation

The Maulana knew what was, commonly, meant by inviting a spirtua! mentor or his successor to their place by his disciples and admirers, and he was not willing to go to Mewat only to fulfill the formalities of attending the dinner given in his honor delivering a few sermons and giving good counsel.

He wanted to make sure before undertaking the trip, that some real advance would be made, as a result of his visit, towards bringing the Meos closer to Islam and improving their moral condition, arid, during those days, the setting up of Maktabs and Madrassas in Mewat appeared to him to be the most effective step in that direction. He had, thus, made it clear that he would accept the invitation only on the condition that they promised to establish Maktabs in their territory.

For the Mewatis, however, no undertaking could be harder to give. They considered the establishment of Maktabs next to impossible for the simple reason that no one would be sending his children to them, and, thus, depriving himself of their contribution to the family income as daily wage-earners. The enthusiasm of those who came to invite quickly subsided as they heard of the stipulation. In desperation, however, a Mewati, finally, made the promise, leaving the rest to Almighty Allah.

Establishment of Maktabs
Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), accordingly, went to Mewat and demanded the fulfillment of the promise. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) met Mewati Muslims who could not even recite Shahadah and who had not prayed even once in their life because they did not know how to pray. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) fully aware of the difficult task ahead was, nevertheless, determined to bring the Meo Muslims back to the fold of true Islam. After great persuasion, the beginning was made and the first Maktab was established.

The Maulana used to tell the Mewatis, “Give me the pupils, I will provide the money.” The Meos who were, mainly, farmers, could not easily reconcile themselves to the position that their children applied themselves to reading and writing and stopped working in the fields or looking after the cattle. It took a lot of tact and perseverance to bring them round to it.

Ten Maktabs were opened during that visit. Once the ice was broken, the progress was easy. Sometimes, several Maktabs were opened in a day till, within a few years, hundreds of such schools were functioning in Mewat.

Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) had a keen concern that if the `ulama did not overlook the preaching and this task was left to the common man alone, it would develop lots of flaws. His wish was for the educated `ulama to take an interest in this task and use their God gifted talents for the propagation of this work. Because most of his life Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) had been associated to learning, he knew intimately the pursuits of the madaris, its teachers, and students. He wanted them to join hands with this work of calling to God but he also wanted a way out that would help those of the madaris in their learning but not interfere with it. He soon realized, however, that the Madrasa ulama trained were simply reproducing their prototypes and had no significant impact on society at large.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) writes, "Deen can progress and develop according to the progress and development of learning, and under the progress and development of learning. It would be the greatest of losses if my movement caused any set back to learning. I do not mean by Tableegh (تبلیغ) to prevent or hurt progress towards learning". He wanted to set forth a movement that would exemplify the Quranic decree of 'enjoining good and forbidding evil'. His initially strove to establish a network of Masjid-based religious schools to educate Muslims about correct Islamic beliefs and practices. Shortly afterwards, he was disappointed with the reality that these Madrasas were ill-equipped to produce Muslim preachers who would be willing to go door to door and remind people of their Islamic obligations, these institutions were good only for producing religious functionaries, not preachers (Da’wah workers).

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) set “Six Basic Principles” the guidelines for the movement, he sought inspiration from the practices adopted by prophet Muhammad at the dawn of Islam. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) put forward the slogan, Urdu: "!اﮮ مسلمان! بنو مسلمان ", "O Muslims! Be Muslims". This expressed the central focus of Tableeghi Jamat (تبلیغی جماعت); their aim to renew Muslim society by uniting them in embracing the lifestyle of Muhammad.

Six Principles

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) devoted to what he described as “the mission of the prophets”. The method adopted by him was simple. It was to organize units (called jamaats, Arabic/Urdu/Persian: جماعتِ ‎ meaning Assembly) of at least ten persons and send them to various villages. This unit jamaat, would visit a village, invite the local Muslims to assemble in the mosque and present their message in the form of Six Principles. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) articulated six demands in the form of Six Principles which are quintessential to Tableeghi Jamat’s (تبلیغی جماعت) teachings. These six principles are:

Kalimah (کلمہ): "An article of faith in which the Tableegh (تبلیغ) accepts that there is no god but Allah and the Prophet Muhammad is His messenger."

Salah (نماز) : "Five daily prayers that are essential to spiritual elevation, piety, and a life free from the ills of the material world."

Ilm and Dhikr(علم و ذکر) : "The knowledge and remembrance of Allah conducted in sessions in which the congregation listens to preaching by the emir, performs prayers, recites the Quran and reads Hadith.

Ikram-i-Muslim(اکرام مسلم) : "The treatment of Muslims with honor and deference."
Tas'hih-i-Niyyat (تصیح نيّت) : Reforming one’s life in supplication to Allah by performing every human action for the sake of Allah and toward the goal of self-transformation."
Tafrigh-i-Waqt (تفریخ وقت): "The sparing of time to live a life based on faith and learning its virtues, following in the footsteps of the Prophet, and taking His message door-to-door for the sake of faith."

Role of women

Women were encouraged to participate since the beginning of the movement. Some scholars objected on the participation of women but Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) slowly gained their support and the first jamaat of women was formed in Nizamuddin, Dehli. Accompanied by a close male relative, women are encouraged to go out in jamaats and work among other women and family members while following the rules of modesty and seclusion. Jamaats of women sometimes participate in large annual meetings; otherwise, they commonly hold neighborhood meetings. Tableeghi Jama’at (تبلیغی جماعت) tends to blur the boundaries of gender roles and both genders share a common behavioral model and their commitment to Tableegh (تبلیغ). The emphasis on a common nature and responsibilities shared by both genders. Just as men redraw the gender roles when they wash and cook during the course of da'wa tours, women undertake the male responsibility of sustaining the household

PERSONAL LIFE SKETCH:

Stay at Gurgaonh

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) used to live with his father at Nizamuddin, and, sometimes, with his maternal grand-father's family at Kandhla. Maulana Muhammad Yahya, requested his father that as the education of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was suffering, he might be allowed to take him to Gangoh. The father agreed - and Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) came to Gurgaonh in 1896 or early 1897 at the age of 10 or 11 years old, where Maulana Mohammad Yahya began to teach him regularly.

Maulana Mohammad Yahya was an ideal teacher and benefactor. He wanted his brother to derive the utmost advantage from the society of illustrious men.

Death of Brothers

The death of Maulana Mohammad Yahya, on Wednesday, the 9th of August, 1915, was an extremely sad and frustrating event for the Maulana. In addition to being a most affectionate brother, he was, also, his teacher and benefactor. He could not get over the shock till the end of his days.

Two years after the death of Maulana Mohammad Yahya, the eldest brother of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), Maulana Mohammad Meo, also, passed away.

There was a Madrassa in the Masjid which had been founded by Maulana Mohammad Ismail Meo (Father). Only primary education was imparted in it, and, among its pupils were mostly the children from Mewat It had no regular source of income and reliance was placed solely upon Almighty Allah for meeting its needs.

After the burial of Maulana Mohammad Meo, people urged upon Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) to take up residence at Nizamuddin in order to fill the void caused by the death of his father and brothers. They, also, promised monthly donations for the Madrassa to which the Maulana agreed subject to certain conditions which he observed throughout his life.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) had made it clear that he would come to Nizamuddin and take charge of the Madrassa only if Maulana Khaiil Ahmad Saharanpuri approved. Maulana Khalil Ahmad latter gave his approval, but added that, in the first instance, only a year’s Ieave be taken from Mazharul Uloom (مدرسۂ مظہرالعلوم)and if the stay at Nizamuddin proved useful and it was decided to settle down there permanently, he could resign at any time.

Before Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) could move to Nizamuddin, he was suddenly taken ill with pleurisy and went to Kandhla where his condition worsened. One night his illness took such a grave turn that all hope was lost. The pulse sank and the body became cold, but Almighty Allah had to take some work from him. unexpectedly, he began to improve, and, in a few days, was able to leave the bed.

On regaining health, Maulana came to Nizamuddin from Kandhla. In those days, there was no habitation in that part of Nizamuddin, and, adjoining the Masjid, later the Basti Nzamuddin became his permanent residence as well as the headquarter of the Tableeghi movement (تبلیغ). Maulana Ihtishamul Hasan who, in his childhood, had come to live, for sometime, with Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) tells that “I used to go out and stand in the hope of seeing ‘a human face. When anyone appeared, I felt so happy as if someone had given me a precious gift.”

Absorption in prayers

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), generally, remained silent and spent most of his time in meditation. He used to offer Nafl prayers much and often at that time. From Maghrib till a little before Isha, he devoted himself exclusively to Nawafil.

Spirit of Jehad

Together with Zikr, Saga (spiritual exercises and exertions) Nawafil and Ibadaat, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was, also, infused with the spirit of Jehad. Throughout his life, he was never without it, and had, in fact, taken the pledge of Jehad at the hand of Maulana Mahmood Hasan for that very reason.

Estimation in the eyes of elders

From his early days, he was held in the highest esteem by the elders of the family as well as the spiritual leaders of the day. Maulana Mohammad Yahya was like a father to him. He concentrated wholly on his studies, and on Zikr, and other forms of worship.

Sometimes, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was asked to lead the service in the presence of renowned theologians and spiritual leaders. Once Shah Abdur Rahim Raipuri, Maulana Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri and Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi happened to be in Kandhla. When the time for Salaat came and Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was asked to lead it, a senior member of the family, Molvi Badrul Hasan, humorously remarked that "such a small engine has been fastened to so many big carriages." "It depends on the power (not the size of the engine", replied one of them.

Marriage

The Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) married the daughter of his maternal uncle, Maulana Rauful Hasans on Friday, October 17, 1912 (8th Zil'Hajja 1330 Hijri) was performed by Maulana Mohammad, and Maulana Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri, Shah Abdur Rahim Raipuri an Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, all the three of them, attended the ceremony. Maulana Thanwi's celebrated sermon, Fuwayid us Suhbat, was delivered on that occasion.

Hajj

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), for first Hajj was sailed in August, 1914 (4th Shawal 1332 Hijri), and returned in February, 1915 (Rabi-ul-Awal 1333 Hijri) and performed second Hajj in 1926 ( 1334 Hijri).

LEGACY:

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was neither a charismatic leader like Mawlana Mohammad Ali Jauhar of the Khilafat movement, unlike Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi of the Jamaat –e-Islami who was a prolific writer and a systematic thinker, nor an outstanding religious scholar like Abul Kalam Azad of the Indian National Congress, he was not even a good public speaker like Ataullah Shah Bukhari of the Ahrar movement. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) did not author a single book in his life. Physically frail and intellectually unassuming, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was, nevertheless, enthused with the zeal of a dedicated Da’wah worker. His passion to reach out to the Muslim masses and touch them with the message of the Qur’an and Sunnah knew no bounds. Like a true missionary, he was persistent, untiring, and whole-heartedly devoted to his cause. During one of his many missionary tours of Mewat, he was once hit with a stick by a peasant upon whom he impressed the importance of leading a religious life. The Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), already physically frail, fell on the ground and collapsed. When he regained consciousness, he got up and, holding his assistant affectionately, said: "Look, you have done your job. Now would you let me do my job and listen to me for a little while?" As one of his colleague put it,” Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو), though a mere skeleton, can work wonders where he takes up anything." The Maulana was spending his days in obscurity. Worship, Zikr (repeating the Names, praise and Attributes of the Lord), attending to the needs of the travelers and teaching the Quran giving instruction in the Faith were his sole occupation in life. He used to take down the load from the heads of the thirsty laborers who passed the way place it on the ground, draw water from the well and give it to them to drink, and, then, offer two Rak'ats of Salaat, expressing gratitude to the Lord that He had given him the opportunity to serve His bondsmen, though he did not deserve it. His eagerness and indomitable determination to reach every Muslim and remind him of his obligations as a believer took precedence on everything else. His passionate concern for the spiritual welfare of his fellow Muslims caused him great anguish. He exerted his friends and followers to dedicate their lives to this cause. Once when he was trying to peruse his audience to volunteer for a missionary trip to Kanpur, U.P. India, not a single person responded to his call. Spotting one of his friends in the audience, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) asked him what prevented him from going to Kanpur. His friend was suffering from serious ailment and was obviously too weak to travel. He told Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) that he was "almost dying" and there was no way he could travel. The Maulana said, "If you are dying already, you had better die in Kanpur." He used to council the groups going in the way of Allah for Tableegh (تبلیغ) to sit and learn from the gatherings of elders with the intention of improving oneself, and never to mention their own work in their presence. If the elders asked anything of their own accord, well and good, otherwise they were to keep silent.

The Maulana never bore a grudge against anyone. His detachment with the world was so complete that it had made him attached to everybody. All the persons who came into contact with him were impressed by his piety, sincerity and selflessness. Leaders of the different warring groups of Delhi held him in the highest esteem, and put an equal trust in him. From his childhood, there was present in Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) a touch of the religious ardour and fervent. Eagerness and enthusiasm for Faith were ingrained in his nature. Even in his early days, he, sometimes, did things which were much above the common level of the children. It is important to note that while Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) kept himself completely aloof from politics of the day and focused his program of action exclusively on making the Muslims aware of their religious obligations, he did not, at any time, criticized those Islamic groups which were actively engaged in politics. On the contrary, he maintained extremely cordial relations with Hussain Ahmad Madani and other Ulama of Deoband school whose political organization, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, a pro-Indian National Congress group, was very much active in Indian politics. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) had equally warm relation with pro-Pakistan faction of the Deoband School led by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi and Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani and with the founder of the Jama’at-e-Islami Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi. However he refused to take any position on the issue of united India vs. a separate Muslim state of Pakistan for the obvious reason that this would distract his movement from its main religious tasks, and would also create dissensions within its ranks. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) was of the view that the Tableeghi movement (تبلیغ) and the politically-oriented Islamic groups, although operating in two different spheres, were complementing each other’s work and hence there should be no competition and rivalry between them. Once when someone pointed out that his movement was "too narrowly focused" and did not address the larger issue of socio-political reforms in Muslim society, the Mawlana responded that this narrow focus in the initial phase of the movement was necessitated by the available manpower and that the movement could grow to encompass a larger and more comprehensive program in the future. It is unfortunate that those who succeeded Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) did not realize his larger vision and saw the Mewat model of Da’wah as eternally fixed. Nevertheless, the fruits of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو)’s efforts are visible all over the world today.

The result of this heart ache and dedication to his aim was that in just a few years, the ache that had bothered one breast caught fire in hundreds and thousands. The Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) had not undertaken the service of Faith as a “national cause”, the burden of providing the funds for which fell wholly upon the nation or the community, but as a personal affair and felt no hesitation in spending all he had on it. He believed that a person should perform a religious task as his own and expend his time and money freely in its way. This was the Maulana’s rule of life. First of all, he spent from his own pocket on the religious endeavor he had launched in Mewat, and, then, alone, would accept help from others.

Once a friend came to visit him while he was on his deathbed. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Meo (مولانا محمّد الیاس میو) greeted his friend by telling him. “People out there are burning in the fire of ignorance and you are wasting your time here inquiring after my health!" He wanted every Muslim to be on his feet, preaching the message of Islam to others. Finally the humble, physically weak and thin Maulana passed away in 1362 Hijra (1943) at the age of 84 years leaving behind not one or two but thousands to take up his cause and continue on the path of reformation.

Al-Malik Al-Adil Noor-ud-Din Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Ibn 'Imad ad-Din Zangi

2010-08-17T14:34:00.017+05:00

Introduction:

Al-Malik Al-Adil Noor-ud-Din Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Ibn 'Imad ad-Din Zangi المالک العادل نورالدّین ابوالقاسم محمود ابن عمادالدّین زنگی۔ (February 1118 – May 15, 1174), also known as Noor-ud-Din ed-Din, Noor-ud-Din al-Din, etc. (in Arabic/Persian/Urdu: نور الدين Nūr ad-Dīn; i.e. Light of the Faith) was a member of the Turkish Zengid dynasty which ruled the Syrian province of the Seljuk Empire. He reigned from 1146 to 1174. Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین)was the second son of Imad ad-Din Zengi, Noor uddin Zangi was a mulsim general who have a honour to saw Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in dream.

The war against the Crusaders

Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین)was one of several Muslim leaders striving to drive the Christian Crusaders out of the Levant. After the assassination of his father, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) and his older brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I divided the kingdom amongst themselves, with Noor-ud-Din governing Aleppo and Saif ad-Din Ghazi establishing himself in Mosul. The border between the two new kingdoms was formed by the Nahr al-Khabur. Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین)is highly capable, he inherited his father's expansionist proclivities and the western portion of his principality, making Aleppo the capital. Noor-ud-Din was a skilled military campaigner who commanded the respect of his men. Almost as soon as he began his rule, Noor-ud-Din defeated an attempt by Joscelin II to recover the County of Edessa, which had been conquered by Zengi in 1144.

Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) sought to make alliances with his Muslim neighbours in northern Iraq and Syria in order to strengthen the Muslim front against their western enemies. In 1147 he signed a bilateral treaty with Mu'in ad-Din Noor-ud-Din (معین الدّین) , governor of Damascus; as part of this agreement, he also married Mu'in ad-Din's (معین الدّین) daughter Ismat ad-Din Khatun (عصمت الدّین خاتون). Together Mu'in ad-Din (معین الدّین) and Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) besieged the cities of Basra and Salkhad, which had been captured by a rebellious vassal of Mu'in ad-Din (معین الدّین) named Altuntash. To reassure Mu'in ad-Din (معین الدّین) , Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) curtailed his stay in Damascus and turned instead towards the Principality of Antioch, where he was able to seize Artah, Kafar Latha, Basarfut, and Balat.

In 1148, the Second Crusade arrived in Syria, led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. They decided to attack Damascus, despite the former alliance the city had made with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Mu'in ad-Din (معین الدّین) reluctantly called for help from Noor-ud-Din; the crusader siege lasted only four days before Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) arrived.

Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) took advantage of the failure of the crusade to prepare another attack against Antioch. In 1149, he launched an offensive against the territories dominated by the castle of Harim, situated on the eastern bank of the Orontes, after which he besieged the castle of Inab. The Prince of Antioch, Raymond of Poitiers, quickly came to the aid of the besieged citadel. The Muslim army destroyed the crusader army at the Battle of Inab, during which Raymond was killed. Raymond's head was sent to Noor-ud-Din, who sent it along to the caliph in Baghdad. Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) marched all the way to the coast and expressed his dominance of Syria by symbolically bathing in the Mediterranean. He did not, however, attack Antioch itself; he was content with capturing all Antiochene territory east of the Orontes and leaving a rump state around the city, which in any case soon fell under the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire. In 1150, he defeated Joscelin II for a final time, after allying with the Seljuk Sultan of Rüm, Mas'ud (whose daughter he also married). Joscelin was blinded and died in his prison in Aleppo in 1159. In 1152 Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) briefly captured Tortosa after the assassination of Raymond II of Tripoli.

Unification of the Sultanate

It was Noor-ud-Din's (نورالدّین) dream to unite the various Muslim forces between the Euphrates and the Nile to make a common front against the crusaders. In 1149 Saif ad-Din Ghazi died, and a younger brother, Qutb ad-Din, succeeded him. Qutb ad-Din recognized Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) as overlord of Mosul, so that the major cities of Mosul and Aleppo were united under one man. Damascus was all that remained as an obstacle to the unification of Syria.

When Ascalon was captured by the crusaders in 1153, Mujir ad-Din forbade Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) from travelling across his territory. Mujir ad-Din, however, was a weaker ruler than his predecessor, and he also agreed to pay an annual tribute to the crusaders in exchange for their protection. The growing weakness of Damascus under Mujir ad-Din allowed Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) to overthrow him in 1154, with help from the population of the city. Damascus was annexed to Zengid territory, and all Syria was unified under the authority of Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین), from Edessa in the north to the Hauran in the south.

In 1157 Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) besieged the Knights Hospitaller in the crusader fortress of Banias and routed a relief army from Jerusalem, but he fell ill that year and the crusaders were given a brief respite from his attacks. In 1159 the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus arrived to assert his authority in Antioch and the crusaders hoped he would send an expedition against Aleppo. However, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) sent ambassadors and negotiated an alliance with the emperor against the Seljuks, much to the crusaders' dismay. Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین), along with the Danishmends of eastern A natolia, attacked the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II from the east the next year, while Manuel attacked from the west. Later in 1160, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) captured the Prince of Antioch, Raynald of Châtillon after a raid in the Anti-Taurus Mountains; Raynald remained in captivity for the next sixteen years. By 1162, with Antioch under nominal Byzantine control and the crusader states further south powerless to make any further attacks on Syria, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Soon after he returned, he learned of the death of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, and out of respect for such a formidable opponent he refrained from attacking the crusader kingdom: William of Tyre reports that Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) said "We should sympathize with their grief and in pity spare them, because they have lost a prince such as the rest of the world does not possess today."

The problem of Egypt

In 1168 Amalric sought an alliance with Emperor Manuel and invaded Egypt once more. Shawar's son Khalil had had enough, and with support from Caliph al-Adil requested help from Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) and Shirkuh. At the beginning of 1169 Shirkuh arrived and the crusaders once more were forced to retreat. This time Noor-ud-Din(نورالدّین) gained full control of Egypt. Shawar was executed and Shirkuh was named vizier of the newly conquered territory, later succeeded by his nephew Salah-ud-Din. One last invasion of Egypt was launched by Amalric and Manuel, but it was disorganized and came to nothing.

The Extreme Honour

As mentioned above Noor-ud-Din Zangi was a mulsim general who have a honour to saw Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in dream. The events that followed the dreams lead him to built an molten metal protection around the grave of prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The whole story of the dream:
It was a peaceful night in Damascus in the year 1162 A.D. He had just gone to bed after completing his mid-night prayers. As he descended into deep snooze, a noble saint with face shining came to him and pointing towards two men with blue eyes, said, “Protect me from these two”. He just could not absorb it anymore and woke up trembling in distress. He performed ablution and offered prayers and again went to sleep. The same saint interrupted him again asking to protect against the evil of the two men. He woke up again and offered prayers and went to bed. The dream repeated for the third time and he just jumped out of this bed asserting, “It’s too much of slumber!!” He immediately called for his noble vizier Jamal Ad Din and shared his dream with him. The vizier advised him to keep the matter undisclosed and immediately head off to Madina. The man was Sultan Noor-ud-Din Ad Din Zangi, who ruled the Muslim lands bordering Crusader States in Palestine during tenth century. The noble saint who came in the dream was Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) himself. The Sultan departed for Madina with a few men and loads of luggage on speedy camels. After sixteen days of journey the royal caravan entered Madina. The Sultan went straight to the Prophet’s Mosque and offered two raka’s of prayers. After while he gathered Medinaites and began distributing valuable gifts. Then began the royal feast for all the inhabitants under strict orders from the Sultan that no one was allowed to miss. Meanwhile the Sultan kept careful eye on all the attendees to recognize the faces of the two men whom Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) had pointed to. The feast passed on but all in vain. The Sultan asked curiously if anyone was left out from the feast, the crowd denied. It was after repeated insistence by the Sultan that he came to know about the two westerners staying near the mausoleum of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). They had a public reputation of being celibates purely devoted to prayers all the time. They were brought before Sultan who took no time recognizing them; they were the same blue-eyed men shown in his dream. The Sultan inquired about their identities and motives. They cunningly produces the story that they were pilgrims from the West, had come to attend annual Hajj but the strong desire to stay nearer to the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) held them in Medina. The Sultan went into their room where all he could find were some scattered books. This situation left the Sultan in serious puzzle amid frequent requests of pardon by the Madinaites defending the two men being very pious who would regularly visit Jannat al Baqee Graveyard and would generously spend in charity during drought years. The embarrassing situation remained until an idea struck Sultan’s mind and he quickly removed the prayer mat where there was a rock. He removed the rock and in his extreme shock and anger found a tunnel dug deep leading to Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) grave. The Sultan immediately arrested the two men and forced them to disclose the reality. The two men revealed that they were Christian spies dispatched and funded for a special mission by Christian Kings to enter prophet’s grave and take his body away. The Sultan infuriated by the plot, had those evil spies executed. Moreover under his orders, a channel dug around the Prophet’s grave and filled with molten copper to protect his grave from any further mischievous attempts forever.

Death and succession

During this time Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) was busy in the north, fighting the Ortoqids, and in 1170 he had to settle a dispute. After conquering Egypt, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) believed that he had accomplished his goal of uniting the Muslim states, However, Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) died of throat trouble on May 15, 1174. He was seized by a fever due to complications from a peritonsillar abscess, and died at the age of 56.

Legacy

According to William of Tyre, although Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) was "a mighty persecutor of the Christian name and faith," he was also "a just prince, valiant and wise, and according to the traditions of his race, a religious man." Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) was especially religious after his illness and his pilgrimage. He considered the crusaders foreigners in Muslim territory, who had come to Outremer to plunder the land and profane its sacred places. Nevertheless, he was tolerant of the Christians who lived under his authority, aside from the Armenians of Edessa and regarded the Emperor Manuel with deep respect. In contrast to Noor-ud-Din's (نورالدّین) respectful reaction to the death of Baldwin III, Amalric I immediately besieged Banias upon learning of the emir's death, and extorted a vast amount of money from his widow.

Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) was noted for strict adherence to religious dicta in his public and private life. Justice was a paramount feature of his character. He is credited, culturally, with patronizing scholars and with the extensive building of mosques, hospitals, schools and universities throughout his territories. These universities were principally concerned with teaching the Qur'an and Hadith. Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) himself enjoyed having specialists read to him from the Hadith, and his professors even awarded him a diploma in Hadith narration. He had free hospitals constructed in his cities as well, and built caravanserais on the roads for travelers and pilgrims. He held court several times a week so that people could seek justice from him against his generals, governors, or other employees who had committed some crime. In the Muslim world he remains a legendary figure of military courage, piety, and modesty. Sir Steven Runciman said that he loved, above all else, justice.

The Damascene chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi generally speaks of Noor-ud-Din (نورالدّین) in majestic terms, although he himself died in 1160, and unfortunately did not witness the later events of Noor-ud-Din's (نورالدّین) reign.

While on this campaign he received a diploma of investiture as lord of Mosul, Syria, Egypt, and Konya from the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad.

Sultan Muhammad Fateh II

2010-07-14T11:17:00.023+05:00

Introduction
Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) Turkish:Meḥmed-i s̠ānī, Turkish: II. Mehmet ),(also known as el-Fātiḥ (الفاتح), "the Conqueror" in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet; Known as Mahomet II in early modern Europe) (March 30, 1432, Edirne – May 3, 1481, Hünkârçayırı, near Gebze) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Rûm until the conquest) for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ), bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) continued his conquests in Asia, with the Anatolian reunification, and in Europe, as far as Belgrade. Administrative actions of note include amalgamating the old Byzantine administration into the Ottoman state. Beside Turkish, he spoke French, Latin, Greek, Serbian, Persian, Arabic and Hebrew.

Early reign
Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) was born in Edirne, the then-capital city of the Ottoman state, on March 30, 1432. His father was Sultan Murad II (1404–51) and his mother Valide Sultana Hüma Khatun, born in Devrekani county of Kastamonu province, was a daughter of Abd'Allah of Hum (Huma meaning a girl/woman from Hum). When Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) was 11 years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, as per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time. After Murad II made peace with the Karaman Emirate in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی).

During his first reign, Sultan Muhammad Fateh (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) asked his father Murad II (مراد الثانی) to reclaim the throne in anticipation of the Battle of Varna, but Murad II refused. Enraged at his father, who had long since retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) wrote: "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." It was upon this letter that Murad II (مراد الثانی) led the Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna in 1444.
He married Valide Sultan Amina Gul-Bahar, of Greek descent of noble birth from the village of Douvera, Trabzon, who died in 1492. She was the mother of Bayezid II(بایزید الثانی) .

Conquest of Constantinople (فتح قسطنطنیہ )

When Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) ascended the throne in 1451 he devoted himself and preparations for the taking of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ). Reference is made to the prospective conquest of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) in an authentic hadith, attributed to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) "Verily you shall conquer Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ). What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!".

In the narrow Bosporus Straits, the fortress Anadoluhisarı had been built by his great-grandfather Bayezid I on the Asiatic side; Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) erected an even stronger fortress called Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus having complete control of the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel refusing signals to stop was sunk with a single shot.

In 1453 Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) commenced in early April, the siege of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ). The city was surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus was stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel any assistance from the sea for the besieged. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain and defended by twenty-eight warships. After the siege Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) sent his messenger to the king of Byzintia asking him to hand over the city giving him a full guarantee of safety for its residents, their wealth, their lives, their beliefs and their honour. The refusal of the king to do this and his declaration of war against the Muslims let to the bombardment of the city, leading to the demolishing of some of the outer walls, without reaching the inner walls. When King Constantine (قسطنطنیہ) realized the seriousness of the situation, he wrote to the pope who assisted him with five large ships filled with weapons, provisions, and soldiers, leading to the increase in morale of the defenders. Their joy did not last for long however, for the next morning, they were surprised with eighty ships inside their gulf which they had blocked with heavy chains and fortified with a large force. However, the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) through his foresight brought the ships over land by paving a path for them of six miles of large tree branches which he had embalmed with oil so that the giant ships can slide over them with their tens of thousands of soldiers, until they were brought to the gulf waters behind the enemy defenses.

The siege of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) lasted for fifty-four days (25 Rabi I - 20 Jumada al-Ulaa 857H, falling on 7/6 April - 29 May 1453AD). On April 22, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony Galata and onto the Golden Horn's northern shore; eighty galleys were transported from the Bosphorus after paving a little over one-mile route with wood. Thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. With the new morn, the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) ordered the setting up of his secret weapon which he had invented himself, which is giant mobile tower, higher than the walls of the city accommodating hundreds of soldiers. This struck fear amongst the Byzantines leading them to believing that the Muslims were using demons in their battles. Muslims broke the middle walls, the resistance of the city began to weaken, while nightfall had left the Byzantines fill with fear leading them to spend their night in their churches praying their Lord to send to their aid the blue angels to save Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) from the Muslims. Whilst the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) spent his night motivating his armies reminding them of the hadith of the messenger (S.A.W.) and praying for victory from Allah. As soon as the new morn came, the soldiers began their general attack. The Muslim army attacked and some of the mujahedeen were able to enter the city, the first to enter it was the Mujahid Hasan Ulu Badi with thirty of his companion, however, the arrows rained on them from every side, and they were all martyred. At this came the essential role of the leader in the battle as the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) stood and spoke to his soldiers taking example from the messenger of Allah (S.A.W.) during the battle of Uhud giving an example of bravery in a few words, saying “my sons, here I am ready for death in the path of Allah, so whoever desires martyrdom, let follow me”. The Muslims followed their leader like the flood from the dam tearing down the obstacles for Kufr until they entered the city and raised therein the word of monotheism.

On 20 Jumada I/29 May to deliver a general assault on the city. In this manner a little over a month later Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) fell on May 29 following a fifty-seven day siege, the city of Heracle fell, which stood stubbornly in front of the Muslims for eight centuries. So they entered it erasing the byzantine government opening the doors of Europe for the call of Islam. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) allowed the return of those Greeks who had left the city before the siege, after the conquest. They paid ransom and were granted immunity from taxation for a certain time. They recorded a white page in history, realizing the promise of the messenger of Allah (S.A.W.) as when he was asked which of the two cities would be liberated first, Constantinople or Rome, he said “The city of Heracle (i.e. Constantinople قسطنطنیہ) would be liberated first”. After this conquest, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ).

It is said that when Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon, known to the Ottomans and Persians as the Palace of the Caesars, probably built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he uttered the famous lines of Persian poetry:
After the transfer of its capital to Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) in 330 AD and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) also had a blood lineage to the Byzantine Imperial family, as his predecessors like Sultan Orhan I had married a Byzantine princess. He was not the only ruler to claim such a title, as there was the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, whose emperor, Frederick III, traced his titular lineage from Charlemagne who obtained the title of Roman Emperor when he was crowned by Pope Leo III in 800 - although never recognized as such by the Byzantine Empire.
The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;
The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab.

Conquests in Asia
The conquest of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) allowed Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) to turn his attention to Anatolia. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) tried to create a single political entity in Anatolia by capturing Turkish states called Beyliks and the Greek Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia and allied himself with the Golden Horde in the Crimea. Uniting the Anatolian Beyliks was first accomplished by Sultan Bayezid I, more than fifty years earlier than Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) but after the destructive Battle of Ankara back in 1402, the newly formed Anatolian unification was gone. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) recovered the Ottoman power on other Turkish states. These conquests allowed him to push further into Europe.

Another important political entity which shaped the Eastern policy of Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) was the White Sheep Turcomans. With the leadership of Uzun Hasan, this Turcoman kingdom gained power in the East but because of their strong relations with the Christian powers like Empire of Trebizond and the Republic of Venice and the alliance between Turcomans and Karamanoğlu Tribe, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) saw them as a threat to his own power. He led a successful campaign against Uzun Hasan in 1473 which resulted with the decisive victory of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Otlukbeli.

Conquests in Europe
After the Fall of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ), Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) would also go on to conquer the Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese in 1460, and the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The last two vestiges of Byzantine rule were thus absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ) bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country.

Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) advanced toward Eastern Europe as far as Belgrade, and attempted to conquer the city from John Hunyadi at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. Hungarian commanders successfully defended the city and Ottomans retreated with heavy losses but at the end, Ottomans occupied nearly all of Serbia.

In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the Bosnian kingdom, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) invaded Bosnia and conquered it very quickly, executing the last Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević.

In 1476, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) won a victory against Stephen at the Battle of Valea Albă and nearly destroyed all of the relatively small Moldovian army. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) invaded Italy in 1480. The intent of his invasion was to capture Rome and "reunite the Roman Empire", and, at first, looked like he might be able to do it with the easy capture of Otranto in 1480 but Otranto was retaken by Papal forces in 1481 after the death of Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی).

The Albanian resistance in Albania between 1443 and 1468 led by George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (İskender Bey), Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) eventually reversed the momentum of Skanderbeg, by creating an autonomous Albanian Muslims force under the leadership of Iljaz Hoxha, Hamza Kastrioti and the Albanian Janissary battalion, the new force eventually captured Kruje and was indeed loyal to the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) and the entire Ottoman Empire.

Administrative actions
Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) amalgamated the old Byzantine administration into the Ottoman state. He first introduced the word Politics into Arabic "Siyasah" from a book he published and claimed to be the collection of Politics doctrines of the Byzantine Caesars before him. He gathered Italian artists, humanists and Greek scholars at his court, kept the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) also tried to get Muslim scientists and artists to his court in Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ), started a University, built mosques e.g. the Fatih Mosque, waterways, and the Topkapı Palace.

Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی)'s reign is also well-known for the religious tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Christians, which was very unusual for Europe in the Middle Ages. However, his army was recruited from the Devshirme. They were split up: those regarded as more able were destined for the sultans court, the less able but physically strong were put into the army or the sultan's personal guard, the Janissaries.

Within the conquered city, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) established a "millet – "ملّت or an autonomous religious community, and he appointed the former Patriarch as essentially governor of the city, this excluded the Genoese and Venetian settlements in the suburbs, and excluded the coming Muslim and Jewish settlers entirely. This method allowed for an indirect rule of the Christian Byzantines and allowed the occupants to feel relatively autonomous even as Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) began the Turkish remodeling of the city, eventually turning it into the Turkish capital, which it remained until the 1920s.

Legacy
Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) spoke seven languages (including Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Latin) when he was 21 years old (the age at which he conquered Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ). After the fall of Constantinople (قسطنطنیہ), he founded many universities and colleges in the city, some of which are still active. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) is also recognized as the first Sultan to codify criminal and constitutional law long before Suleiman the Magnificent (also "the Lawmaker" or "Qanuni",”"قانونی) and he thus established the classical image of the autocratic Ottoman sultan (padishah).

Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) had laid the foundations of Ottoman rule in Anatolia and the Balkans, which were to remain unshaken for four centuries. He also gave their final form to the institutions of the empire and determined the course of its future political development.

Peace in the Balkans and Anatolia:
Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) led two expeditions into Serbia in 862/1458 and in 863/1459 Serbia was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. In 862/1458, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) defeated Palacologi princes and occupied Morea. In 867/1463, when the local Greeks surrendered the castle of Argos to the Ottomans, the Venetians launched a general offensive. The Ottomans then declared war on the Venetians, which lasted from 867/1463 to 884/1479. They also took over Bosnia in 867/1463 and this led to renewed hostilities with Hungary. Pope Pius II summoned the crusading armies to Ancona, where he went in person the following year.

The oath firman (فرمان), which has provided independence and tolerance to the ones who are from another religion, belief, and race was declared by Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) the Conqueror and granted to Angjeo Zvizdovic of the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica, Bosnia and Herzegovina after the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 28 of 1463. The firman has been recently raised and published by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman State. The edict was issued by the Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) the Conqueror to protect the basic rights of the Bosnian Christians when he conquered that territory in 1463. The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica.
It is one of the oldest documents on religious freedom. Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی)'s oath was entered into force in the Ottoman Empire on May 28, 1463. In 1971, the United Nations published a translation of the document in all the official U.N. languages.

Reverse of the 1000 lira banknote (1986-1992) Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی)'s portrait was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 1000 lira banknotes of 1986-1992.

Death
On May 3, 1481, Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی) died in 886/1481 at the age of forty-nine, the expeditions in Egypt, Italy and the Mediterranean were left unfinished. He had fought the Ghaza war (Jihad i.e. Islamic War) without a break, to a degree that even a contemporary historian found excessive; as he claimed, he had become, within a space of thirty years, the tomb of master of two seas and two continents “Sultan Muhammad Fateh II (سلطان محمّد فاتح الثانی)” is located at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul.

Gentle Hearted Warrior: Salahuddin Ayyubi

2010-06-08T14:31:00.034+05:00

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی, Selah'edînê Eyubî, English: Salahuddin Ayubi, Arabic/Persian/Urdu: صلاح الدّین ایّوبی‎) (c. 1138 – March 4, 1193), better known in the Western world as Salahuddin Ayubi (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی), was a Kurdish Muslim who became the first Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was born in Tikrit, Iraq (تکرک - عراق).

Gentle hearted Salahuddin Ayyubi became one of the world's greatest warriors by defeating crusaders and capturing the holy city of Jerusalem. He is remembered by Muslims as well as Non-Muslims as a kind hearted un-selfish Warrior. He was a religious person and followed the teachings of Quran (Book of God) and Prophet Muhammad’s teachings regarding War, he treated all of his Prisoners with Respect and dignity, no torture, massacre, mass killing, took place during his time. It is equally true that his generosity, his piety, devoid of fanaticism, that flower of liberality and courtesy which had been the model of our old chroniclers, won him no less popularity in Frankish Syria than in the lands of Islam. And unlike all other Sultan’s he did not build a single Palace or any building for himself yet he erected mosques, hospitals, and universities for his Muslim brothers in Cairo.

He led Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, and Yemen. He led the Muslims against the Crusaders and eventually recaptured Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem after his victory in the Battle of Hattin. As such, he is a notable figure in Kurdish, Arab, and Muslim culture. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was a strict adherent of Islam. His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lion-heart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry.

His family was of Kurdish background and ancestry, and had originated from the city of Dvin, in medieval Armenia. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was banished from Tikrit and in 1139, he and his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh, moved to Mosul. He later joined the service of Imad ad-Din Zengi who made him commander of his fortress in Baalbek. After the death of Zengi in 1146, his son, Nur ad-Din, became the regent of Aleppo and the leader of the Zengids.

Education:
About education of Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) historian wrote "children are brought up in the way in which their elders were brought up". According to one of his biographers, al-Wahrani, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was able to answer questions on Euclid, the Almagest, arithmetic, and law, but this was an academic ideal and it was study of the Qur'an and the "sciences of religion" that linked him to his contemporaries. During his studies he was more interested in religion than joining the military. A factor which may have affected his interest in religion was that during the First Crusade, Jerusalem was taken in a surprise attack by the Christians. In addition to Islam, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) had knowledge of the genealogies, biographies, and histories of the Arabs, as well as the bloodlines of Arabian horses. More significantly, he knew the Hamasah of Abu Tammam by heart.

Early expeditions
Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) military career began when his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh (اسدالدّین شیرکوہ), an important military commander under Nur ad-Din (نورالدّین), started training him. In 1163, the vizier to the Fatimid caliph al-Adid, Shawar, had been driven out of Egypt by rival Dirgham, a member of the powerful Banu Ruzzaik tribe. He asked for military backing from Nur ad-Din, who complied and in 1164, sent Shirkuh to aid Shawar in his expedition against Dirgham. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی), at age 26, went along with them. Shawar was successfully reinstated as vizier. Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) role in this expedition was minor, and he was ordered by Shirkuh to collect stores from Bilbais prior to its siege by a combined force of Crusaders and Shawar's troops.

After the sacking of Bilbais, the Crusader-Egyptian force and Shirkuh's army were to engage in a battle on the desert border of the Nile River, just west of Giza. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) played a major role, commanding the right wing of the Zengid army, while a force of Kurds commanded the left, and Shirkuh stationed in the center. Sources at the time put Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) in the "baggage of the center" with orders to lure the enemy into a trap by staging a false retreat. Commander Hugh of Caesarea was captured while attacking Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) unit. The battle ended in a Zengid victory, and Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) is credited to have helped Shirkuh in one of the "most remarkable victories in recorded history".

Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) and Shirkuh moved towards Alexandria (اسکندریہ) where they were welcomed, given money, arms, and provided a base. Shirkuh split his army. He and the bulk of his force withdrew from Alexandria, while Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was left with the task of guarding the city.

In Egypt (مصر)
Al-Wahrani wrote that Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was selected because of the reputation of his family in their "generosity and military prowess." The bulk of the Syrian rulers supported Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) due to his role in the Egyptian expedition, in which he gained a record of impeccable military qualifications. Inaugurated as vizier on March 26, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) repented "wine-drinking and turned from frivolity to assume the dress of religion."

Towards the end of 1169, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) defeated a massive Crusader-Byzantine force near Damietta. After establishing himself in Egypt, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) launched a campaign against the Crusaders, besieging Darum in 1170. The same year, he captured the Crusader castle of Eilat, built on an island off the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. It did pose a threat to the passage of the Muslim navy and harass smaller parties of Muslim ships, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) decided to clear it from his path.
During the summer of 1172, a Nubian army along with a contingent of Armenian refugees were reported on the Egyptian border, preparing for a siege against Aswan. The emir of the city had requested Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) assistance and was given reinforcements under Turan-Shah (طوران شاہ)—Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) brother.

On July 31, 1173, Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) father Ayyub was wounded in a horse-riding accident, ultimately causing his death on August 9, 1173.

In Syria (شام)
In the early summer, On May 15, 1174 Nur ad-Din was died and his power was handed to his eleven-year-old son as-Salih Ismail al-Malik. In a letter to as-Salih, he promised to "act as a sword" against his enemies and referred to the death of his father as an "earthquake shock."
14th In the wake of Nur ad-Din's death, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) faced a difficult decision; he could move his army against the Crusaders from Egypt or wait until invited by as-Salih in Syria to come to his aid and launch a war from there. He could also take it upon himself to annex Syria before it could possibly fall into the hands of a rival, but feared that attacking a land that formerly belonged to his master—which is forbidden in the Islamic principles he followed—could portray him as hypocritical and thus, unsuitable for leading the "holy war" against the Crusaders.

The Syrians request the aid of Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) who complied. On November 23, he arrived in Damascus (دمشق) amid general acclamations and rested at his father's old home there, until the gates of the Citadel of Damascus were opened to him. He installed himself in the castle and received the homage and salutations of the citizens.

Leaving his brother Tughtigin (تغتگین) as Governor of Damascus, Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) aim was to defending Islam from the Crusaders; his army returned to Hama to engage a Crusader force there. The Crusaders escaped beforehand and Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) proclaimed it "a victory opening the gates of men's hearts."

On April 13, 1175 he issued at the Cairo (قاہرہ) mint gold coins bearing his name—The Abbasid caliph in Baghdad graciously welcomed Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) assumption of power and declared him "Sultan of Egypt and Syria." The prisoners, however, were given gifts and freed by Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) and all of the booty of his victory were handed to the army, not keeping a thing for himself.

Having been absent roughly two years, he had much to organize and supervise in Egypt, namely fortifying and reconstructing Cairo. The 280 feet (85 m) deep Bir Yusuf ("Joseph's Well") was built on Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) orders. The chief public work he commissioned outside of Cairo was the large bridge at Giza, which intended to form an outwork of defense against a potential Moorish invasion.

Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) remained in Cairo supervising its improvements, building colleges such as the Madrasa of the Sword Makers and ordering the internal administration of the country.

In November 1177, The Christians sent a large portion of their army to besiege the fortress of Harim north of Aleppo and so southern Palestine bared few defenders. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) found the situation ripe and so marched to Ascalon, which he referred to as the "Bride of Syria." William of Tyre recorded that the Ayyubid army consisted of 26,000 soldiers, this army proceeded to raid the countryside, sack Ramla and Lod, and dispersed themselves as far as the Gates of Jerusalem.

The Ayyubids did allow King Baldwin to enter Ascalon with his Gaza-based Templars without taking any precautions against a sudden attack. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) and his men were surprised at Tell Jezer, near Ramla. Before they could form up, the Templar force hacked the Ayyubid army down.

Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was prepared to fight the Crusaders once again. In the spring of 1178, he was encamped under the walls of Hims. His forces in Hama won a victory over their enemy and brought the many prisoners of war to Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) .

In the summer of 1179, King Baldwin had set up an outpost on the road to Damascus and aimed to fortify a passage over the Jordan River, known as Jacob's Ford, that commanded the approach to the Banias plain. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) had offered 100,000 gold pieces for Baldwin to abandon the project which was peculiarly offensive to the Muslims, but to no avail. He then resolved to destroy the fortress. As the Crusaders hurried down to attack the Muslim forces, they fell into disorder, with the infantry falling behind. The engagement ended in a decisive Ayyubid victory and many high-ranking knights were captured. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) then moved to besiege the fortress which fell on August 30, 1179.

On May 11, 1182, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) along with half of the Egyptian Ayyubid army and non-combatants left Cairo for Syria. On the evening before he departed, he sat with his companions and the tutor of one of his sons quoted a line of poetry: "enjoy the scent of the ox-eye plant of Najd, for after this evening it will come no more." Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) never saw Egypt again. Knowing that Crusader forces were massed upon the frontier to intercept him, he took the desert route across the Sinai Peninsula to Ailah at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. He arrived in Damascus in June to learn that Farrukh-Shah had attacked the Galilee and capturing Habis Jaldek, a fortress of great importance to the Crusaders. In July, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) dispatched Farrukh-Shah to attack Kawkab al-Hawa. Later Kukbary, the emir of Harran, invited Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) to occupy the Jazira region, making up northern Mesopotamia and he complied. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) promptly impressed the inhabitants of the town by publishing a decree that ordered a number of taxes to be canceled and erased all mention of them from treasury records, stating "the most miserable rulers are those whose purses are fat and their people thin." From ar-Raqqah, he moved to conquer al-Fudain, al-Husain, Maksim, Durain, 'Araban, and Khabur—all of which swore allegiance to him.

Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) proceeded to take Nusaybin. A medium-sized town, Nusaybin was not of great importance, but it was located in a strategic position between Mardin and Mosul and within easy reach of Diyarbakir. In the midst of these victories, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) received word that the Crusaders were raiding the villages of Damascus. He replied "Let them... whilst they knock down villages, we are taking cities; انشااللہ when we come back, and we shall have all the more strength to fight them."

He had no doubts about his success, stating that Aleppo was "the key to the lands" and "this city is the eye of Syria and the citadel is its pupil." After the capture of the city and spending one night in Aleppo's citadel, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) marched to Harim, near the Crusader-held Antioch. The city was held by Surhak, a "minor mamluk."

Wars against Crusaders
Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi, (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) the hero of hundreds of battles, was the person who for twenty years braved the storm of the Crusaders and ultimately pushed back the combined forces of Europe which had come to swarm the Holy Land. The world has hardly witnessed a more chivalrous and humane conqueror. The Crusades represent the maddest and the longest war in the history of mankind, in which the storm of savage fanaticism of the Christian West burst in all its fury over western Asia. `The Crusades form', says a Western writer, `one of the maddest episodes in history. Christianity hurled itself against Muslims in expedition after expedition for nearly three centuries, until failure brought lassitude, and superstition itself was undermined by its own labour. Europe was drained off men and money, and threatened with social bankruptcy, if not with annihilation. Millions perished in battle, hunger or disease and every atrocity imagination can conceive disgraced the warrior of the Cross'. The Christian West was excited to a mad religious frenzy by Peter the Hermit, and his followers to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the Muslims. `Every means', says Hallam, `was used to excite an epidemical frenzy'. During the time that a Crusader bore the Cross, he was under the protection of the Church and exempted from all taxes as well as frees to commit all sins.

Peter the Hermit himself led the second host of the Crusaders comprising forty thousand people. `Arriving at Mallevile, they avenged their precursors by assaulting the town, slaying seven thousand of the inhabitants, and abandoning themselves to every species of grossness and liberalism'. The savage hordes called Crusaders converted Hungary and Bulgaria into desolate regions. When they reached Asia Minor, they, according to Michaud, `committed crimes which made nature shudder'.

On September 29, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) crossed the Jordan River to intercepted Crusader reinforcements from Karak and Shaubak along the Nablus road and took a number of prisoners. Meanwhile, the main Crusader force under Guy of Lusignan moved from Sepphoris to al-Fula. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) sent out 500 skirmishers to harass their forces and he himself marched to Ain Jalut. When the Crusader force—reckoned to be the largest the kingdom ever produced from its own resources, but still outmatched by the Muslims—advanced, the Ayyubids unexpectedly moved down the stream of Ain Jalut. After a few Ayyubid raids—including attacks on Zir'in, Forbelet, and Mount Tabor—However, Raynald of Châtillon, harassed Muslim trading and pilgrimage routes with a fleet on the Red Sea, a water route that Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) needed to keep open. In response, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) built a fleet of 30 galleys to attack Beirut in 1182. Raynald threatened to attack the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and responded by looting a caravan of pilgrims on the Hajj in 1185.

In July 1187 Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) captured most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On July 4, 1187, at the Battle of Hattin, he faced the combined forces of Guy of Lusignan, King Consort of Jerusalem and Raymond III of Tripoli. In this battle alone the Crusader army was largely annihilated by the motivated army of Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی). It was a major disaster for the Crusaders and a turning point in the history of the Crusades. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) captured Raynald de Châtillon and was personally responsible for his execution in retaliation for his attacking Muslim caravans. The members of these caravans had, in vain, besought his mercy by reciting the truce between the Muslims and the Crusaders, but he ignored this and insulted their prophet Muhammad before murdering and torturing a number of them. Upon hearing this, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) swore an oath to personally execute Raynald.

Guy of Lusignan was also captured. Seeing the execution of Raynald, he feared he would be next. But his life was spared by Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) with the words, talking about Raynald:
It is not the wont of kings, to kill kings; but that man had transgressed all bounds, and therefore did I treat him thus.

Capture of Jerusalem
October 2, 1187, before the siege, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) had offered generous terms of surrender to the Crusaders, which were rejected. After the siege had started, he was unwilling to promise terms of quarter to the Frankish inhabitants of Jerusalem until Balian of Ibelin threatened to kill every Muslim hostage, estimated at 5000, and to destroy Islam's holy shrines of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque (مسجد الاقصی) if quarter was not given. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) consulted his council and these terms were accepted. In 1187 CE, Jerusalem was conquered by Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی)but he did not enter the city of Jerusalem until the Crusaders had left. On Friday 27th Rajab 583 AH, Salahuddin entered in Jerusalem. After entering the city they went straight to the Mosque and cleaned it. Then for the first time in more then 80 years, the people of Jerusalem heard the Azan (call of prayer) from Al Aqsa Mosque. Thousands of Crusaders were arrested; the humanity of the Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) towards the defeated Christians of Jerusalem procures an unpleasant contrast to the massacre of the Muslims in Jerusalem when conquered by the Christians about ninety years before.

(According to the French historian Michaud, on the conquest of Jerusalem by the Christians in 1099 `the Saracens were massacred in the streets and in the houses. Jerusalem had no refuge for the vanquished. Some fled from death by precipitating themselves from the ramparts; others crowded for shelter into the palaces, the towers and above all, in the mosques where they could not conceal themselves from the Christians. The Crusaders, masters of the Mosque of Umar (مسجد عمر), where the Saracens defended themselves for sometime, renewed their deplorable scenes which disgraced the conquest of Titus. The infantry and the cavalry rushed pell-mell among the fugitives. Amid the most horrid tumult, nothing was heard but the groans and cries of death; the victors trod over heaps of corpses in pursuing those who vainly attempted to escape. Raymond d'Agiles who was an eye-witness, says: that under the portico of the mosque, the blood was knee-deep, and reached the horses' bridles.')

However, Sultan was very considerate towards the defeated Christians. Respecting their feelings, only the combatants were asked to leave the city on payment of a nominal ransom. when their mothers, sisters, and wives appealed to Salahuddin(صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) , he released them. In addition, he provided them transport, etc. He allowed neither massacre nor looting. He gave free pardon to all citizens. He even arranged for their traveling. He granted freedom to Christians to leave the city if they paid a small tribute. Salahuddin paid it, himself, for about ten thousand poor people. His brother paid it for seven thousand people. Salahuddin also allocated one of the gates of the city for people who were too poor to pay anything that they leave from there. Summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In particular, the residents of Ashkelon, a large Jewish settlement, responded to his request.

Hattin and the fall of Jerusalem prompted the Third Crusade, financed in England by a special "Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) tithe." Richard I of England led Guy's siege of Acre, conquered the city and executed 3000 Muslim prisoners including women and children. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) retaliated.

The armies of Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) engaged in combat with the army of King Richard I of England at the Battle of Arsuf on September 7, 1191. All attempts made by Richard to re-take Jerusalem failed. However, Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) relationship with Richard was one of chivalrous mutual respect as well as military rivalry. When Richard became ill with fever, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) offered the services of his personal physician. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) also sent him fresh fruit with snow, to chill the drink, as treatment. At Arsuf, when Richard lost his horse, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) sent him two replacements. Richard suggested to Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) that in Palestine, Christian and Muslim, could be united through the marriage of his sister Joan of England, Queen of Sicily to Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) brother, and that Jerusalem could be their wedding gift. However, the two men never met face to face and communication was either written or by messenger.

As leaders of their respective factions, the two men came to an agreement in the Treaty of Ramla in 1192, whereby Jerusalem would remain in Muslim hands but would be open to Christian pilgrimages. The treaty reduced the Latin Kingdom to a strip along the coast from Tyre to Jaffa. This treaty was supposed to last three years.

Death
The Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) devoted the rest of his life to public welfare activities and built hospitals, schools, colleges and mosques all over his dominion. He died of a fever on March 4, 1193, at the age of 55 years in Damascus. Thus died Sultan Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی), one of the most humane and chivalrous monarchs in the annals of mankind. In him, nature had very harmoniously blended the benevolent and merciful heart of a Muslim with a matchless military genius. The messenger who took the news of his death to Baghdad brought the Sultan's coat of mail, his horse one dinar and 36 dirhams which was all the property he had left. His contemporaries and other historians are unanimous in acknowledging Salahuddin as a tender-hearted, kind, patient, affable person--- a friend of the learned and the virtuous whom he treated with utmost respect and beneficence.

Since Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) had given most of his money away for charity, when they opened his treasury, they found there was not enough money to pay for his funeral. He died with no possession of Gold coins, Palaces, Slaves, but The Holy Land of Jerusalem. And so Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was buried in a magnificent mausoleum in the garden outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

Seven centuries later, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany donated a new marble sarcophagus to the mausoleum. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was, however, not placed in it. Instead the mausoleum, which is open to visitors, now has two sarcophagi: one empty in marble and the original in which holds Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) made of wood.
"A Knight without fear or blame who often had to teach his opponents the right way to practice chivalry". An inscription written by Kaiser Wilhelm II on a wreath he laid on Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) Tomb.

Recognition and legacy
His fierce struggle against the crusaders was where Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight, so much so that there existed by the fourteenth century an epic poem about his exploits. Though Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) faded into history after the Middle Ages. Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) granted amnesty and free passage to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom (the Greek Orthodox Christians were treated even better, because they often opposed the western Crusaders), the Muslim Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) was respected by Christian lords, Richard especially. Richard once praised Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) as a great prince, saying that he was without doubt the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world. In April 1191, a Frankish woman's three month old baby had been stolen from her camp and had been sold on the market. The Franks urged her to approach Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) herself with her grievance. According to Bahā' al-Dīn, Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) used his own money to buy the child back:
"He gave it to the mother and she took it; with tears streaming down her face, and hugged it to her breast. The people were watching her and weeping and I (Ibn Shaddad) was standing amongst them. She suckled it for some time and then Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) ordered a horse to be fetched for her and she went back to camp".

According to British Commander General Edmund Allenby during World War I, proudly declared "today the wars of the Crusaders are completed" by rising up his sword towards statue of Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) after capture of Damascus from Turkish troops. British press as well, celebrated his victory with cartoons of Richard the Lion-Hearted looking down at Jerusalem above the caption "At last my dream come true. After French General Henri Gouraud entered the city in July 1920 and kicking Salahuddin's (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی) tomb, Gouraud exclaimed, "Awake Salahuddin (صلاح الدّین ایّوبی), we have returned. My presence here consecrates the victory of the Cross over the Crescent."

Khairuddin (Hayreddin) Barbarossa Pasha

2010-05-03T10:00:00.023+05:00

Introduction:
Khair ad Din (Khairuddin) was one of four brothers: Ishaq (اسحاق), Aruj (عروج), Ilyas (الیاس) and Khizer (خضر), who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa (یعقوب آغا), his paternal forefathers' were Turkish whereas the maternal forefathers were belongs from Greek.

His original name was Khizer Yaqoob Khairuddin (Turkish: Hızır Yakupoğlu. Hayreddinan) and in Arabic/Persian/Urdu: خضربن یعقوب الخیرالدین, (means: Khizer son of Yaqoob), the honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was "Khair ad-Din" (خیرالدین) literally means Goodness of the Religion (of Islam). He became known as Barbarossa (Redbeard) in Europe, a name he inherited from his older brother Baba Oruç ( بابا عروجFather Aruj) after the martyrdom of Aruj in a battle with the Spanish (ہسپانیہ) in Algeria (الجزائر). This name sounded like "Barbarossa" (باربروسہ) to the Europeans, which eventually - due the similarity in sound - evolved in Spain, France and Italy into Barbarossa (meaning Redbeard in Italian).and Aruj did have a red beard. The nickname stuck then also to Hayreddin's Turkish name, in the form Barbaros.

Kaptan-ı Derya of the Ottoman Navy (امیرالبحر خلافت عثمانیہ)
Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) Castle in Capri still carries the name of the Ottoman admiral who captured the island in 1535. The Turks eventually departed from Capri, but another famous Ottoman admiral, Turgut Reis, recaptured both the island and the castle in 1553.
Statue of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşha near the Turkish Naval Museum on the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

In 1534 Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) set sail from Istanbul with 80 galleys and in April he recaptured Coron, Patras and Lepanto from the Spaniards. In July 1534 he crossed the Strait of Messina and raided the Calabrian coasts, capturing a substantial number of ships around Reggio Calabria as well as the Castle of San Lucido. He later destroyed the port of Cetraro and the ships harbored there. Still in July 1534 he appeared in Campania and sacked the islands of Capri and Procida, before bombarding the ports in the Gulf of Naples. He then appeared in Lazio, shelled Gaeta and in August landed at Villa Santa Lucia, Sant'Isidoro, Sperlonga, Fondi, Terracina and Ostia on the River Tiber, causing the church bells in Rome to ring the alarm. He then sailed south, appearing at Ponza, Sicily and Sardinia, before capturing Tunis in August 1534 and sending the Hafsid Sultan Mulei Hassan fleeing. He also captured the strategic port of La Goulette.

Mulei Hassan asked Emperor Charles V for assistance to recover his kingdom, and a Spanish-Italian force of 300 galleys and 24,000 soldiers recaptured Tunis as well as Bone and Mahdiya in 1535. Recognizing the futility of armed resistance, Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) had abandoned Tunis well before the arrival of the invaders, sailing away into the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he bombarded ports, landed once again at Capri and reconstructed a fort (which still today carries his name) after largely destroying it during the siege of the island. He then sailed to Algiers, from where he raided the coastal towns of Spain, destroyed the ports of Majorca and Minorca, captured several Spanish and Genoese galleys and liberated their Muslim oar (چپّوبان) slaves. In September 1535 he repulsed another Spanish attack on Tlemcen.

In 1536 Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) was called back to Istanbul to take command of 200 ships in a naval attack on the Habsburg Kingdom of Naples. In July 1537 he landed at Otranto and captured the city, as well as the Fortress of Castro and the city of Ugento in Apulia.

In August 1537, Lütfi Pasha (لطفی پاشا) and Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) led a huge Ottoman force which captured the Aegean and Ionian islands belonging to the Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kythira, and Naxos. In the same year Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) raided Corfu and Calabria. These losses caused Venice to ask Pope Paul III to organize a "Holy League" against the Ottomans.

In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League (composed of the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights) against the Ottomans, but Barbarossa defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538. This victory secured Turkish dominance over the Mediterranean for the next 33 years, until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Khairuddin Barbarossa (Hayreddin) Pasha (خیرالدین باربروسا پاشا) defeats the Holy League of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria at the Battle of Preveza in 1538.

In the summer of 1539 Khairuddin Barbarossa captured the islands of Skiathos, Skyros, Andros and Serifos and recaptured Castelnuovo from the Spanish, who had taken it from the Ottomans after the battle of Preveza. He also captured the nearby Castle of Risan and later assaulted the Venetian fortress of Cattaro and the Spanish fortress of Santa Veneranda near Pesaro. Khairuddin Barbarossa later took the remaining Christian outposts in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Venice finally signed a peace treaty with Sultan Suleiman in October 1540, agreeing to recognize the Turkish territorial gains and to pay 300,000 gold ducats.

In September 1540, Emperor Charles V contacted Khairuddin Barbarossa and offered him to become his Admiral-in-Chief as well as the ruler of Spain's territories in North Africa, but he refused. Unable to persuade Barbarossa to switch sides, in October 1541, Charles himself laid siege to Algiers, seeking to end the corsair threat to the Spanish domains and Christian shipping in the western Mediterranean. Andrea Doria, who commanded the fleet, and the old Hernan Cortés, who had been asked by Charles to participate in the campaign, both attempted to change the Emperor's mind but failed. Eventually a violent storm disrupted Charles' landing operations. Andrea Doria took his fleet away into open waters to avoid being wrecked on the shore, but much of the Spanish fleet went aground. After some indecisive fighting on land, Charles had to abandon the effort and withdraw his severely battered force.

Franco-Ottoman alliance (اتحاد فرانسیہ و عثمانیہ)
In the Siege of Nice in 1543, Khairuddin Barbarossa's (خیرالدین باربروسا) fleet combined with a French force to capture the city.

In 1543 Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) headed towards Marseilles to assist France, then an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and cruised the western Mediterranean with a fleet of 210 ships (70 galleys, 40 galliots and 100 other warships carrying 14,000 Turkish soldiers, thus an overall total of 30,000 Ottoman troops.) On his way, while passing through the Strait of Messina, he asked Diego Gaetani, the governor of Reggio Calabria, to surrender his city. Gaetani responded with cannon fire, which killed three Turkish sailors. Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا), angered by the response, besieged and captured the city. He then landed on the coasts of Campania and Lazio, and from the mouth of the Tiber threatened Rome, but France intervened in favor of the Pope's city. Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) then raided several Italian and Spanish islands and coastal settlements before laying the Siege of Nice and capturing the city on 5 August 1543 on behalf of the French king Francis I. The Turkish captain later landed at Antibes and the Île Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes, before sacking the city of San Remo, other ports of Liguria, Monaco and La Turbie. He spent the winter with his fleet and 30,000 Turkish soldiers in Toulon, but occasionally sent his ships from there to bombard the coasts of Spain.

In the spring of 1544, after assaulting San Remo for the second time and landing at Borghetto Santo Spirito and Ceriale, Barbarossa defeated another Spanish-Italian fleet and raided deeply into the Kingdom of Naples. He then sailed to Genoa with his 210 ships and threatened to attack the city unless it freed Turgut Reis, who had been serving as a galley slave on a Genoese ship and then imprisoned in the city since his capture in Corsica by Giannettino Doria in 1540. Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue at his palace in the Fassolo district of Genoa, and the two admirals negotiated the release of Turgut Reis in exchange for 3,500 gold ducats. Barbarossa then successfully repulsed further Spanish attacks on southern France, but was recalled to Istanbul after Charles V and Suleiman had agreed to a truce in 1544.

After leaving the Provence from the port of Île Sainte-Marguerite in May 1544, Barbarossa assaulted San Remo for the third time, and when he appeared before Vado Ligure, the Republic of Genoa sent him a substantial sum to save other Genoese cities from further attacks. In June 1544 Barbarossa appeared before Elba. Threatening to bombard Piombino unless the city released the son of Sinan Reis who had been captured 10 years earlier by the Spaniards in Tunis, he obtained his release. He then captured Castiglione della Pescaia, Talamone and Orbetello in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. There he destroyed the tomb and burned the remains of Bartolomeo Peretti, who had burned his father's house in Mytilene the previous year, in 1543. He then captured Montiano and occupied Porto Ercole and the Isle of Giglio. He later assaulted Civitavecchia, but Leone Strozzi, the French envoy, convinced Barbarossa to lift the siege.

The Turkish fleet then assaulted the coasts of Sardinia before appearing at Ischia and landing there in July 1544, capturing the city as well as Forio and the Isle of Procida before threatening Pozzuoli. Encountering 30 galleys under Giannettino Doria, Barbarossa forced them to sail away towards Sicily and seek refuge in Messina. Due to strong winds the Turks were unable to attack Salerno but managed to land at Cape Palinuro nearby. Barbarossa then entered the Strait of Messina and landed at Catona, Fiumara and Calanna near Reggio Calabria and later at Cariati and at Lipari, which was his final landing on the Italian peninsula. There he bombarded the citadel for 15 days after the city refused to surrender, and eventually captured it.

He finally returned to Istanbul, and in 1545 left the city for his final naval expeditions, during which he bombarded the ports of the Spanish mainland and landed at Majorca and Minorca for the last time. He then sailed back to Istanbul and built a palace on the Bosphorus, in the present-day district of Büyükdere.

Retirement and death
Khairuddin Barbarossa (خیرالدین باربروسا) retired in Istanbul in 1545, leaving his son Hasan Pasha (حسن پاشا) as his successor in Algiers. He then dictated his memoirs to Muradi Sinan Reis (مرادی ثنان رئیس). They consist of five hand-written volumes known as "Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa" (Conquests of Hayreddin Pasha – غزواۃ خیرالدین پاشا). Today they are exhibited at the Topkapı Palace and Istanbul University Library. They are prepared and published by Babıali Kültür Yayıncılığı as "Kaptan Paşa'nın Seyir Defteri" (The Logbook of the Captain Pasha) by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şimşirgil, a Turkish academic, and "Akdeniz Bizimdi" (The Mediterranean was Ours) by M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ.

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha (خیرالدین باربروساپاشا) died in 1546 إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ)) in his seaside palace in the Büyükdere neighbourhood of Istanbul, on the northwestern shores of the Bosphorus. He is buried in the tall mausoleum (türbe - مقبرہ) near the ferry port of the district of Beşiktaş on the European side of Istanbul; which was built in 1541 by the famous architect Mimar Sinan, at the site where his fleet used to assemble. His memorial was built in 1944, next to his mausoleum.

Legacy
Barbarossa Khairuddin (Hayreddin) Pasha established Turkish supremacy in the Mediterranean which lasted until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. But even after their defeat in Lepanto, the Ottoman Turks quickly rebuilt their fleet, regained Cyprus and other lost territories in Morea and Dalmatia from the Republic of Venice between 1571 and 1572, and conquered Tunisia from Spain in 1574. Furthermore, the Turks ventured into the northern Atlantic Ocean between 1585 and 1660, and continued to be a major Mediterranean sea power for three more centuries, until the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, when the Ottoman fleet, which had 21 battleships and 173 other types of warships, ranked as the third largest naval force in the world after the British and French navies (see the main article History of the Turkish Navy).

However, during these centuries of great seamen such as Kemal Reis before him; his brother Oruç Reis(عروج رئیس) and other contemporaries Turgut Reis(ترگت رئیس) , Salih Reis (صالح رئیس), Piri Reis (پیری رئیس) and Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis (کرتوگلو مصیح الدین رئیس); or Piyale Pasha (پیارے پاشا), Murat Reis (مؤرت رئیس), Seydi Ali Reis (سیّدی علی رئیس), Uluç Ali Reis (علوک علی رئیس) and Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis (کرتوگلو خضر رئیس) after him, few other Turkish admirals ever achieved the overwhelming naval power of Barbaros Khairuddin (Hayreddin) Paşha (باربروسہ خیرالدین پاشا).

His mausoleum is in the Barbaros Park of Beşiktaş, Istanbul, where his statue also stands, right next to the Turkish Naval Museum. On the back of the statue are verses by the Turkish poet Yahya Kemal Beyatlı which may be translated as follows

Whence on the sea's horizon comes that roar?
Can it be Barbarossa now returning
From Tunis or Algiers or from the Isles?
Two hundred vessels ride upon the waves,
Coming from lands the rising Crescent lights:
O blessed ships, from what seas are ye come?

In the centuries following his death, even today, Turkish seamen salute his mausoleum with a cannon shot before leaving for naval operations and battles. Several warships of the Turkish Navy and passenger ships have been named after him. A Dutch-speaking group of traditional sea scouts in Brussels (140' FOS sea scouts Roodbaard) recently named their group after Barbarossa (Dutch Roodbaard, meaning Redbeard.)

Summary as Admiral-in-Chief of the Ottoman Empire
In 1533 Khair ad Din was made Admiral-in-Chief by the Ottoman Sultan.
In 1535, al-Hasan asked the Spaniards for assistance, and Charles V prepared a campaign and recaptured Tunisia in that year.
In 1538, the fleet of Charles V was defeated at the Battle of Preveza by Khair ad Din, securing the eastern Mediterranean for the Turks for 33 years.
In 1541, Ahmed Ibn al-Hasan al-Hafsi took over Tunisia from his father, because of his father's status of servitude to the Spaniards.
In 1544, when Spain declared war on France, the French king Francois I, asked the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I for help. The latter sent a fleet headed by Khair ad Din who is victorious over the Spaniards, and manages to retake Naples from them.
Like his brother 'Aruj, Khair ad Din managed to coordinate a fleet of 36 ships, and in 7 voyages successfully transferred 70,000 Muslim Morisco, and settled them in Algiers, making it a stronger base against Spain.

Due to all these achievements, the Ottoman Sultan bestowed on him the title of Beylerbey: Commander General.
With the orders of the Suleiman the Magnificent he dictated his memoirs to Muradi Sinan Reis. They consist of 5 volumes of hand writings known as "Gazavat-Ä± Hayrettin PaÅŸa" (Memories of Khair ad Din Pasha). Today they are exhibited at the Topkapi Palace and Istanbul University Library. They are fictionalised as "Akdeniz Bizimdi" (Mediterranean was Ours) by M. ErtuÄŸrul DÃ¼zdaÄŸ.
Khair ad Din died aged 65 in his palace on the Bosphorus in Istanbul. After his death, his son, Hasan Pasha succeeded him in Algiers.
His mausoleum is in Besiktas, Istanbul in the same square where his statute is located.

Mehmood Ghaznavi

2010-04-05T11:37:00.017+05:00

Introduction
Mehmood محمود of Ghazni (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: محمود غزنوی) (November 2, 971 - April 30, 1030), also known as Yāmīn al-Dawlah Maḥmūd (in full: Yāmīn al-Dawlah Abd al-Qāṣim Maḥmūd Ibn Sebük Tegīn یامین الدولہ عبد القاسم محمود ابن سبکتگین) was the most prominent ruler of the Turk Ghaznavid dynasty and ruled from 997 until his death in 1030. Mehmood Ghaznavi محمود غزنوی is one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen. He was one of the very few leaders who were never defeated in a battle field, He was a brave man and use to take part in all the battles his forces fought. Mehmood محمود turned the former provincial city of Ghazni غزنی (now in Afghanistan افغانستان) into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which extended from Central Asia (وسطی ایشیا) Afghanistan (افغانستان) into most of Iran (ایران) as well as Pakistan (پاکستان) and regions of North-West Sub-Continent. He was also the first ruler to carry the title Sultan ( (سلطان("authority"), signifying the extent of his power, though preserving the ideological link to the suzerainty of the Caliph.

Military campaigns
In 994, Mehmood محمود joined his father Sebüktigin سبکتگین in the capture of Khorasan خراسان from the rebel Faiq in aid of the Samanid Emir, Nuh II. During this period the Samanid state became highly unstable, with shifting internal political tides as various factions vied for control, the chief among them being Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, Fa'iq, Abu Ali, the General Behtuzun as well as the neighbouring Buyids and Qarakhanids.

Consolidation of rule
Sultan Mehmood's محمود غزنوی سلطان first campaign was against the Qarakhanid Empire, which controlled the northern portion of his Empire. After his defeat, he enlisted the alliance of the Seljuk Turks in southern Soghdia and Khwarazm خوارزم who aided him in securing the north by diplomacy (998). In 999 'Abd al-Malik II عبدالمالک ثانی of the Samanids engaged in hostilities with Mehmood محمود over Khorasan حراسان after political alliances shifted under a new Samanid Emir. These forces were defeated when the Qarakhanids under Nasr Khan invaded them from the north. Mehmoodمحمود then solicited an alliance which was cemented by his marriage to Nasr Khan's daughter. He already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh بلخ through marriage. It's local Emir Abu Nasr Mohammad ابوناصرمحمّد, offered his services to the Sultan and his daughter to Mehmood's محمود son, Muhammad محمّد. Image of Mehmood محمود in his court where noblemen and noblewomen convened. After Nasr's death Mehmood محمود brought Balkh بلخ under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped him during his expeditions into Northern sub-continent.

The Multan and Hindu Shahi struggles
Mehmood's محمود first campaign to the south was against the Ismaili Fatimid Kingdom at Multan in a bid to curry political favour and recognition with the Abbassid Caliphate خلافت عبّاسیہ, he engaged with the Fatimids elsewhere. At this point, Raja Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi Dynasty in (Lahore and Kashmir) attempted to gain revenge for an earlier military defeat at the hands of Mehmood's محمود father, who had controlled Ghazni غزنی in the late 980s and had cost Jayapala extensive territory. His son Anandapala succeeded him and continued the struggle to avenge his father's suicide. He assembled a powerful confederacy which faced an unfortunate defeat as his elephant turned back from the battle in a crucial moment, turning the tide into Mehmood's محمود favour once more at Lahore in 1008 bringing Mehmood محمود into control of the Hindu Shahi dominions of Updhanpura. There is considerable evidence from writings of Al-Biruni البیرونی, Soghidan , Uyghur and Manichean texts that the Buddhists, Hindus and Jains were accepted as People of the Book and references to Buddha as Burxan or as a prophet can be found. After the initial destruction and pillage, Buddhists, Jains and Hindus were granted protected subject status as Dhimmis (ذمّی) . By that time, however, most of the centers of Buddhist and Hindu learning were already destroyed.

Ghaznavid campaigns in the Subcontinent
Though he was interested in extending his empire toward Central Asia, the maneuverings of the Hindu rulers of Punjab forced him to invade South Asia, (Although, it is an existing perception of the historians that Mehmood محمود didn't have any interest to rule Sub-continent, Mehmood محمود had respect for other religions. A large number of Hindus lived in Ghazni, and they enjoyed religious freedom. One of his commanders named Tilak was a Hindu. A number of soldiers in his army were also Hindus. Mehmood محمود attacked the Hindu Temples in India because of political and not religious reasons). After the defeat of the Rajput Confederacy, He deciding to teach them all a lesson for combining against him, he came to South Asia seventeen times and went back to Ghazni every time with a great victory. He fought against the strong forces of Jaipal, Annadpal, Tarnochalpal, Kramta and the joint forces of Hindu Rajas and Maharajas but all of them were forced to flee away from the battlefield due to Mehmood's محمود war strategy as a general. After the conquest of Multan and Lahore, Mehmood محمود made Punjab a part of his empire in 1021.

Unlike other great conquerors like Alexander and Chengez Khan, Mehmood محمود did not leave the areas conquered to the mercy of his soldiers. After becoming the first Muslim ruler to conquer Northern Punjab, he consolidated his rule in the area and established his provincial headquarters at Lahore. He established law and order in the areas that he ruled, giving special attention to the people he ruled. The department of police and post were efficient. His judicial system was very good as everybody was equal before the law and justice was the order of the day.

Patron of the Arts and Poetry
Mehmood محمود was also a great patron of learning. His court was full of scholars including giants like Firdosi the poet, Behqi the historian and Al-Biruni the versatile scholar. It is said that he used to spend four hundred thousand golden Dinars on scholars. He invited the scholars from all over the world and was thus known as an abductor of scholars. Under Mehmood محمود, Ghazni became one of the most important and beautiful cities of the Islamic world. It was the city of mosques, madrasas and libraries. He also established a Museum in Ghazni. During his rule, Lahore also became a great center of learning and culture. Lahore was called 'Small Ghazni'. Saad Salman, a poet of those times, has written about the academic and cultural life of Lahore.

Mehmood محمود was also a deeply religious man. He himself wrote a book on Fiqh. Monument of Ferdowsi, whose work along with other artisans and poets, was promoted by Mehmood محمود. After 30 years of hard work, the notable poet Ferdowsi went to Ghazni and presented the Shahnameh to Mehmood محمود. He sent the amount to Ferdowsi’s village, but when the messengers reached his house, they found that Ferdowsi had died a few hours earlier. The gift was then given to his daughter, since his son had already died at the age of 37. Later Mehmood محمود ordered the money be used for repairing an inn in the way from Merv to Tus, named “Robat Chaheh” so that it may remain in remembrance of the poet. This inn now lies in ruins, but still exists.

Political challenges and his death
The last four years of Mehmood's محمود life were spent contending with the influx of Oghuz Turkic horse tribes from Central Asia, the Buyid Dynasty and rebellions by Seljuqs. Initially the Seljuks were repulsed by Mehmood محمود and retired to Khwarezm but Togrül and Çagrı led them to capture Merv and Nishapur (1028-1029). Later they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successors across Khorasan and Balkh and even sacked Ghazni in 1037. In 1039 at the Battle of Dandanaqan, they decisively defeated Mehmood's محمود grandson, Mas'ud I resulting in Mas'ud abandoning most of his western territories to the Seljuks.

Sultan Mehmood محمود died on April 30, 1030. His mausoleum is located at Ghazni in modern Afghanistan

Sher Shah

2010-03-11T15:39:00.012+05:00

Early life
Sher Khan (شیرخان) (known as Sher Shah Suri 1486 -1545شیر شاہ سوری ( was born in an ancient city Sasaram, Bihar (بہار ) His original birth name was Farid-ud-din Abul Muzaffar (فریدالدین ابولمظفّر) but mostly called by the simple name as Farid (فرید) son of Hassan Khan Suri (حسن خان سوری). According to his teacher, as a child, Farid Khan (فرید خان) was exceptionally bright, he set himself to serious study, he acquired good command over the Arabic and Persian languages. Because of his abilities, he was soon appointed by his father to manage the family Jagir (property – (جاگیر. But because of his stepmother, he left his father's Jagir. He enlists as a soldier in the service of Jamal Khan, the governor of Jahanpur (جہانپور). Later, he had known as Sher Khan after he killed a full-sized tiger (sher شیر) single-handedly.

Sher Khan (شیرخان) belonged to the Suri ethnic Pashtun tribe (known as Afghan - افغان in historical Persian sources) his parents were Afghan nobility who descended from a Pashtun nobleman adventurer recruited much earlier by Sultan Bahlul Lodi of Delhi during his long contest with the Sharqi Sultans of Jahanpur (جہانپور).

Military Campaign
Seeing the weaknesses in the Mughal rule and military organization, Sher Shah took advantage of the problems faced by Humayun. Eventually he managed to overthrow the Mughal rulers. He defeated Humayun (ہمایوں) in 1539 and became ruler of the Mughal Empire. This made him a shah, so his name changed to Sher Shah.

Sher Shah conquered a large portion of sub-continent, although his reign barely spanned five years, it's a landmark in the history of the Sub-continent as a founder of the Suri Dynasty.

Government and administration
Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) "The Lion King" ran an efficient, but somewhat tight administration. With his deep knowledge and practical experience, he made many brilliant additions and improvements to the existent system. Sher Shah was a capable military and civilian administrator. He set up reforms in various areas. The empire was divided into 47 provinces called sarkars (سرکار), and then each was subdivided into several smaller districts called Parganas (پراگنا) صدرمقام) capitalized). Each Pargana had its own group of officers called Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaram (شقدار – شقدارام) and a second group called Munsif-i-Munsifan (منصف منصفان). Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) transferred these officers around every two or three years to prevent any "undue influence" of officers in one place. He also wasn't leanant when it came to crime. He even punished his relatives (but only if they were found guilty in the courts). In order to stay in power, Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) appointed several spies.

Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) rose from the rank of private to be emperor, reorganized the administration efficiently and the army and tax collections, built roads and Travellers' inns, rest houses (sarais سراۓ) and wells (کنویں), improved the jurisdiction, founded refuges and hospitals, established free kitchens (لنگر) and organized a mail services and the police.

Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) was a visionary ruler and introduced many military and civil reforms. The system of tri-metalism which came to characterize Mughal coinage was largely the creation of Sher Shah Suri. He minted a coin of silver which was termed the "Rupiya(روپیہ) " in 1540 - 1545 CE, that was the first Rupee released, it weighed 178 grains and was the precursor of the modern rupee. The same name is still used for the national currency in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mauritius, Maldives, and Seychelles among other countries. Gold coins called the Mohur (مہر) weighing 169 grains and copper coins called Dam (دام) were also minted by his government.

Mirza Aziz Koka, son of Ataga Khan, and probably Akbar's closest friend and one the most important mansabdar's (منصبدار) of the Mughal Empire, wrote this to Emperor Jahangir in one of his personal letters to him.

"Especially Sher Khan was not an angel (malaik ملائک / فرشتہ) but a king (malik حاکم)". In six years he gave such stability to the structure (of the kingdom) that foundation still survives. He had made Sub-continent flourishing in such a way that the king of Persia (فارس) and Turan (توران) appreciate it, and has a desire to look at it".

Akbar later built on these reforms and extended them further. Many of these reforms pertained to the army, but the principal reforms for which he is remembered are those connected with revenue administration. Numerous civil works were carried out during his short reign. Akbar followed his administrative manual (zawabit انتظامی ضوابط ) for fifty years and did not discontinue them.

Death and succession
Sher Shah Suri (شیرشاہ سوری) died of a blast during siege of Kalinjar fort on 22 May, 1545. Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) was the last Delhi Sultan to offer serious resistance to the Mughals on their advance to the south, and his death in during the siege of Kalinjar (Bundelkhand) in 1545, cleared the path to the return of Mughal emperor Humayun.

Sher Shah Suri (شیرشاہ سوری) was succeeded by his son, Jalal Khan (جلال خان) who took the title of Islam Shah Suri (اسلام شاہ سوری), and his imposing mausoleum, the Sher Shah Suri Tomb (122 ft high) stands in the middle of an artificial lake at Sasaram, a town that stands on the Grand Trunk Road, his lasting legacy.

Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi ( تاریخ شیرشاہی - History of Sher Shah), written by Abbas Khan Sarwani (عباس خان سروانی) , a waqia-navis (واقعہ نویس) under later Mughal Emperor, Akbar (اکبر) around 1580, provides a detailed documentation about Sher Shah's (شیرشاہ) administration.

Architectural legacy
Rohtas Fort's magnificent Kabuli Gate.
Apart from the Grand Trunk Road then known as Sarak-e-Azam (شاہراہ اعظم /سڑک اعظم) ("great road"), which stretches across the breadth of subcontinent from Sonargaon in Bangaldesh to Peshwar in Pakistan, he built monuments many of which are extinct today, including, Rohtas Fort, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Pakistan, many structures in the Rohtasgarh Fort in Bihar, Sher Shah Suri Masjid, in Patna, built in 1540-1545 to commemorate his reign.
Qila-i-Kuhna mosque, built by Sher Shah in 1541, at Purana Qila, Delhi, a citadel Humayun started in 1533, and later extended by him, along with the construction of Sher Mandal, an octagonal building inside the Purana Qila, Delhi complex, which later served as the library of Humayun.

Lal Darwaza (باب احمر / لال دروازہ) or Sher Shah Gate (شیرشاہ گیٹ), the Southern Gate to the (شیرشاہ) Sher Shah Suri's city, Shergarh (شیرگڑھ), opposite Purana Qila, Delhi (پرانا قلعہ دہلی) , also showing with the adjoining cur-on walls and bastions

Conclusion:
Sher Shah Suri's شیر شاہ سوری empire (green) at its peak Sher Shah (شیرشاہ) ruled for a short period of five years, at his death in 1545, he not only consolidated his power but also brought about important reforms. He was a practical and farsighted ruler who was way ahead of his contemporaries. He is remembered in history for the numerous reforms that he undertook to strengthen the government. He place in history rests not on his military exploits alone, but on the exemplary efficiency of his rule, the many far-reaching improvements that he effected in all spheres of government, and the splendid measures that he instituted for the good of the general public.

Sher Shah Suri- شیر شاہ سوری -a man of surpassing personal excellence, a great and exemplary ruler and the greatest leader ever produced by the Afghans. Sher Shah left behind an empire stretching from the Indus to the Bay of Bengal. However, he was in truth the greatest ruler that sat upon the throne of Delhi

Tipu Sultan

2010-02-11T15:37:00.012+05:00

Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) was the eldest son of Haider Ali (حیدرعلی) and his mother’s name was Fakhr-un-Nissa (فخرالنسا‏‏‎ء), born on 20th November 1750 A.D. at Devanahalli. Haider Ali (حیدرعلی) named his son after a great Sufi saint namely Tipu Mastan Aulia (ٹیپومستان اولیاء)

Academic & Military Education
Haider Ali gave good education to his son Tipu Sultan ۔(ٹیپو سلطان)Right from his early years he was trained in the art of warfare He received military education from Ghazi-Khan who was a great warrior and also a military officer in the army of Haider Ali and at the age of 15 he used to accompany his father Haider Ali, (the ruler of Mysore میسور), to different military campaigns, participating in the wars that were fought by his father. Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) helped his father both in the First and the Second Mysore Wars. He was also a brave soldier and great general. In Addition, he also learnt different languages, He was well versed in Urdu (اردو) , Persian(فارسی), and Arabic (عربی)languages, mathematics and science. Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) had a fascination for learning. His personal library consisted of more than 2,000 books in different languages.

Ruler of Mysore
After the death of Haider Ali(حیدرعلی) , Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان)was enthroned as the ruler of Mysore (میسور) on 4th May 1783 A.D. in a simple ceremony at Bejnur (بجنور). He was an extremely active man and worked hard for the welfare of his subjects He continued the Second Mysore War (جنگ میسور – دوم) against the English. He defeated many English generals like Brithwhite & Col. Bailey in 1783.

The Mysore War
Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) attacked the Raja of Travancore (راجاتراوانکور) . In the first stage of the war (Third Mysore War جنگ میسور – سوم: 1790-92 A.D.) General Medows and General Kolly planned the course of action. Medows tried to reach Mysore through Coimbatore. Kolly was supposed to reach Bangalore through Baramahal District. But he died without achieving anything. Medows efforts were checked by Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) at Sathyamangalam and then he recaptured the places which were occupied by Medows. In the initial stages, Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) gained upper hand over the English. As long as the British fought alone, Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) always defeated them. But he could not come over their diplomacy, conspiracy and intrigue. Thus he was defeated in the Second half in his capital, Seringapatam, and was forced to sign a humiliating treaty on March 22, 1792. As a result he had to concede half of his kingdom and pay an indemnity of 33 million rupees to the British and their allies. Since he could not pay war indemnity in full, he accepted to send his second and third sons namely Abdul Khaliq and Maiz-Uddin aged 10 and 8 respectively as hostages till he would pay the war indemnity. He paid the balance amount after two years and received his sons in 1794 A.D. at Devanahalli.

His Efforts Towards Building Allies
Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) was a farsighted person who could foresee East India Company's design to get entrenched in sub-continent. After the Third Mysore war, Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) sent envoys to Persia, France and Afghanistan to seek help from them in fighting against the English. He contacted Napolean Bonaparte also. Though he accepted to help Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) against the English, he could not keep his word. He therefore negotiated with the Sultan of Turkey(ترکی) for help and also sought assistance from the Amir of Afghanistan (افغانستان).

The British were scared of Tipu's growing strength and after their defeat in 1783 they formed an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and Marhattas. The French, however, deserted Tipu after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The alliance between the adversaries was soon broken and in 1795 the British, after defeating the Nizam, once again turned their attention towards Mysore. After the treaty at Seringapatam, Tipu Sultan did not waste his time and made extensive preparations against the British. He had rebuilt his war machine in the shortest possible time. The British regarded it as a violation of the treaty. This led to the start of the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1798 with the help of the Nizam.

Fight to Death
Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) retreated to his capital and continued fighting till he breathed his last on 4th May, 1799 A.D. Tipu Sultan was buried at a mausoleum that he himself had built, along with his father Haider Ali حیدرعلی and his mother Fatima Begum فاطمہ بیگم .

Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) was a great patriot and like his father realized the danger of letting the British becoming stronger. Although much of the period of his rule was given to war with the Marhattas, the Nizam and the British, he made his state secure and peaceful with benevolent rule. He was an enlightened ruler who treated his non-Muslim subjects generously. He built a chain of excellent roads and constructed tanks and dams to promote agriculture. He introduced new industries, promoted trade and commerce on a large scale. Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) prohibited the production and distribution of liquor and other intoxicants in Mysore (میسور). He also built and fortified numerous forts and many palaces, which were demolished by the British after his death. Bangalore Summer Palace still survives and is a remnant of his grand rule.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS:

"The Quran requires you to say to people of scripture: We believe in that which has been revealed into us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is one and unto him we surrender. We hold this God-given law dear to our heart, based as it is on human dignity; reason and brotherhood of man. With reverence we have also read the Vedas of the Hindus. They proclaim their faith in universal unity and express the belief that God is one although He bears many names."
-- Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان) .

"Religious tolerance is the fundamental tenet of the Holy Quran".
The Quran calls upon you not to revile the idols of another religion for it says: revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance.The Quran expects you to vie with each other in good works and saus for each we have appointed a divine law and a traced out way. Had Allah willed he could have made you one community...so vie one with another in good works".
--Tipu Sultan's (ٹیپو سلطان) Declaration, 1787

LIFE OF A TIGER BETTER THAN THAT OF A JACKAL
"By what right do I commend my men to die for my cause if I should be afraid to lay down my own life ? In the face of a common calamity, is the King to escape sacrifice and suffering ? And why should I prolong the hours then there is no more profit in them ? I should only make myself ridiculous in the eyes of others and of my own - if I cling to life needlessly. Would you advice a Tiger to follow the life-style of a jackal; Would you ?"
-- Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان)

IMPORTANCE OF LAW
"No man shall be punished save in accordance with law.The law of immemorial custom and as enshrined in our traditions shall be honoured by us. So that people may know the extent and the rigour of the law, as also their rights, duties, obligations and responsibilities. We have decided that codification of law be undertaken... Accordingly, we have established a committee of Ministers.........."
(From Tipu Sultan's (ٹیپو سلطان) proclamation in 1786.)

LOOTING FORBIDEN

".....Looting a conquered enemy enriches a few; impoverishes the nations and dishonours the entire army. War must be linked to battlefields. Do not carry it to innocent civilians. Honour their children and the infirm."
(From Tipu Sultan's (ٹیپو سلطان) decree in 17 83, repeated in 1785, 1787).

PROHIBITION FOR ECONOMIC AND MORAL WELL-BEING.
"......This is a matter in which we must be undeterred and undaunted by financial considerations. Total prohibition is very near to my heart. It is not a question of religion alone. We must think of the economic well being and the moral height of our people and the need to build the character of your youth. I appreciate your concern for immediate financial loss but should we not look ahead? Is the gain to our treasury to be rated higher than the health and morality of our people...."
(Tipu's (ٹیپو سلطان) memorandum to Mir Sadiq,1787

NO SLAVERY OF ANY KIND.
" 'Since receiving that letter, I have heard that frequently such labouris being requinsitioned by Amildars either on their own or at the request or several departments. Therefore, I say this to you, let strict instructions be issued forthwith, for I see in such a practice the beginnings of a system slavery'.'There can be no glory or achievements if the foundation of our places, roads and dams are mingled with the tears and blood of humanity'....."
-- Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان)

TIPU'S METHOD OF PUNISHMENT FOR OFFENCES
"The Ryots of your district, when convicted of offences, are at present fined by the government. It is ordered that in future these offences shall be commuted; and that the offender in place of every pagoda of the fine adjudged against him, shall plant 2 Mango trees, and 2 trees of the large jamun in front of his village and to water and tend them till they are the height of 3 Derras. This order is to be inserted in the Regulation of the districts".
The Mysorean Revenue Regulations : No. 126

SALE OF ABANDONED GIRLS AND ORPHANS DECREED UNLAWFUL
"Formerly it has been a practice for the Amil and officers of government and other people ti purchase and sell abandoned girls and orphans children, etc., There are not to sold abroad, or to be budged in the Devasthana but are to be collected together for Government".
-- Regulations No.102-

K R S DAM ON THE CAUVERY RIVER
This dam is being constructed by the Khudadad Government... Any one brings under cultivation any uncultivated land and grows crops, vegetables or fruits by irrigating it with water from this dam will be given all encouragement and concessions.. the newly cultivated land shall belong to the cultivator and his descendants.. and no one shall dispossess him.
Inscription on the foundation stone on K.R.S. Dam on the Cauvery River

AGRICULTURE
"Agriculture is the life-blood of the nation. This land, rich and fertile, will reward those that work on it. Famine and want are either the result of sloth and ignorance or of corruption".
--Tipu's (ٹیپو سلطان) circular to al Amildars, 1788.

ON PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES
"Flogging and whipping - be they to extract confessions or punishment, are repugnant to humanity and reason, They do not achieve their purpose. They degrade the victim. They dishonour the person in whose name they are ordered".
-- Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان).

TIPU'S CODE OF LAW AND CONDUCT OF 1787 STATED
"To quarrel with our subjects is to go to war with ourselves. They are our shield and our buckles; and it is they who furnish us with all things. Reserve the hostile strength of our empire exclusively for its foreign enemies".
-- Tipu Sultan (ٹیپو سلطان)

Imam Shamil

2009-12-30T11:27:00.016+05:00

Indtoduction
Imam Shamil (Turkish: Şeyh Şamil also spelled as Shamyl, Schamil, in Urdu/Arabic/Persian امام شامل ; 1797 – March 1871) was an Avar political and religious leader of the Muslim tribes of the Northern Caucasus. He was a leader of anti-Russian resistance in the Caucasian War and was the third Imam of Dagestan(داغستان) and Chechnya(شیشان) (1834-1859).

Family and early life
Imam Shamil (امام شامل) was born in 1797, in the small village (aul) of Gimry, which is in current-day Dagestan (occupied by Russia). He was originally named Ali(علی) , but following local tradition, his name was changed when he became ill. His father, Dengau, was a free landlord, and this position allowed Shamil (امام شامل) and his close friend, Ghazi Mullah, to study many subjects including Arabic and logic. Shamil (امام شامل) established himself as a well-respected and educated man of Quran and Sunnah among other Muslims of the Caucasus.

Shamil (امام شامل) was born at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding into the territories of the Ottoman Empire and Persia(فارس). Following the Russian invasion, many Caucasian nations united in resistance to harsh Tsarist rule in what became known as the Caucasian War. Some of the earlier leaders of Caucasian resistance were Sheikh Mansur(شیخ منصور), and Ghazi Mollah(غازی ملا). Shamil (امام شامل) was actually childhood friends with the Mollah, and would become his disciple and counsellor.

War against Russia
In 1832, Ghazi Mollah(غازی ملا) died at the battle of Gimry, and Shamil (امام شامل) was one of only two Murids (مرید)to escape, but he sustained severe wounds. He went into hiding and both Russians and Murids(مرید) assumed him dead. Once recovered, he emerged out of hiding and rejoined the murids(مرید), led by the third Imam, Gamzat-bek. When the latter was murdered by Hadji Murad(حاجی مراد) in 1834, Shamil took his place as the premier leader of the Caucasian resistance and the third Imam of Daghestan(امام داغستان). In 1839 (June-August), Shamil (امام شامل) and his followers, numbering about 4000 men, women and children, found themselves under siege in their mountain stronghold of Akhoulgo, nestled in the bend of the Andee Koisou River, about ten miles east of Gimry. This epic siege of the war lasted eighty days, resulting finally in a Russian victory. The Russians suffered about 3000 casualties in taking the stronghold, while the rebels were almost entirely slaughtered after extremely bitter fighting where typical of the war, no quarter was either asked or given. Shamil and a small party of his closest followers, including some family miraculously managed to escape down the cliffs and through the Russian siege lines during the final days at Akhoulgo. Following his escape he once again set about regaining his following and resisting the Russian occupation. Shamil (امام شامل) was effective at uniting the many, frequently quarreling, Caucasian tribes to fight against the Russians. He made effective use of guerrilla warfare tactics and the resistance continued under his leadership until 1859. On August 25, 1859 Shamil (امام شامل) and his family surrendered to Russian forces and were jailed in the Dagestan (داغستان)aoul of Gunib.

Last years
After his capture, Shamil (امام شامل) was sent to Saint Petersburg (سینٹ پیٹرزبرگ)to meet the Emperor Alexander II. Afterwards he was exiled to Kaluga, then a small town near Moscow (ماسکو). After several years in Kaluga he complained to the authorities about the climate and in December, 1868 Shamil received permission to move to Kiev, a commercial center of the Empire's southwest. In Kiev he was afforded a mansion in Aleksandrovskaya Street. The Imperial authorities ordered the Kiev superintendent to keep Shamil (امام شامل) under "strict but not overly burdensome surveillance" and allotted the city a significant sum for the needs of the exile.

In 1869 he was given permission to perform the Hajj to the holy city of Mecca (مکّہ مکرّمہ). He traveled first from Kiev to Odessa and then sailed to Istanbul(استنمبول), where he was greeted by Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz(سلطان عبدالعزیز). He became a guest at the Imperial Topkapi Palace for a short while and left Istanbul (استنمبول) on a ship reserved for him by the Sultan. After completing his pilgrimage to Mecca(مکّہ), he died in Medina(مدینہ منوّرہ) in 1871 while visiting the city, and was buried in the Jannatul Baqi(جنت البقیع), which is a site where Prophet Muhammed (محّمد صلّی اللہ علیہ وسلّم)and other prominent personalities from Islamic history are buried.

Tariq ibn Ziyad

2009-11-24T12:58:00.010+05:00

Tariq ibn Ziyad or Taric bin Zeyad‎ (طارق بن زیاد), (born in Oued Tafna, modern day Algeria and died in 720), known in Spanish history and legend as Taric el Tuerto (Taric the one-eyed), was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad General who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I. According to the historian Ibn Khaldoun(ابن خلدون), Tariq Ibn Ziyad (طارق بن زیاد) was from a Berber tribe of Algeria. Tariq ibn Ziyad (طارق بن زباد) is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history. He was initially the deputy of Musa ibn Nusair (موسی بن نصیر) in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to launch the first thrust of a conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom (comprising modern Spain (ہسپانبہ) and Portugal (پرتگال)).

Some claim that his name Tariq ibn Ziyad (طارق بن زیاد) (meaning Tariq son of Ziyad) was more a nickname given to him by historians than a real name, because he was a Berber with probably a Berber non-Arab name, and he converted to Islam shortly before he invaded Hispania.

On April 29, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar(جبل الطارق) (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal al Tariq (جبل الطارق) which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq).

The 17th century Muslim historian Al Maggari (المگّاری) wrote that upon landing, Tariq burned his ships and then made a historical speech (well-known in the Muslim world) to his soldiers.

“Oh my warriors, whither would you flee? Behind you is the sea, before you, the enemy. You have left now only the hope of your courage and your constancy. Remember that in this country you are more unfortunate than the orphan seated at the table of the avaricious master. Your enemy is before you, protected by an innumerable army; he has men in abundance, but you, as your only aid, have your own swords, and, as your only chance for life, such chance as you can snatch from the hands of your enemy. If the absolute want to which you are reduced is prolonged ever so little, if you delay to seize immediate success, your good fortune will vanish, and your enemies, whom your very presence has filled with fear, will take courage. Put far from you the disgrace from which you flee in dreams, and attack this monarch who has left his strongly fortified city to meet you. Here is a splendid opportunity to defeat him, if you will consent to expose yourselves freely to death. Do not believe that I desire to incite you to face dangers which I shall refuse to share with you. In the attack I myself will be in the fore, where the chance of life is always least.”

“Remember that the Commander of True Believers, Alwalid(الولید), son of Abdalmelik(عبدالمالک), has chosen you for this attack from among all his Arab warriors; and he promises that you shall become his comrades and shall hold the rank of kings in this country. Such is his confidence in your intrepidity. The one fruit which he desires to obtain from your bravery is that the word of God shall be exalted in this country, and that the true religion shall be established here. The spoils will belong to your selves.”

“Remember that I place myself in the front of this glorious charge which I exhort you to make. At the moment when the two armies meet hand to hand, you will see me; never doubt it, seeking out this Roderick, tyrant of his people, challenging him to combat, if ALLAH is willing. If I perish after this, I will have had at least the satisfaction of delivering you, and you will easily find among you an experienced hero, to whom you can confidently give the task of directing you. But should I fall before I reach to Roderick, redouble your ardor, force yourselves to the attack and achieve the conquest of this country, in depriving him of life. With him dead, his soldiers will no longer defy you.”

The Muslim armies swept through Hispania (ہسپانبہ) and, in the summer of 711, won a decisive victory when the Visigothic king, Roderick, was defeated and killed on July 19 at the Battle of Guadalete(‏‏‏غرناطہ) . Afterwards, Tariq (طارق بن زیاد) was made governor of Hispania (ہسپانبہ) but eventually was called back to Damascus (دمشق) by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I(خلیفہ بنوامیّہ الولید اول), where he spent the rest of his life.

Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi

2009-10-27T15:37:00.016+06:00

Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi ( Arabic: محمد بن قاسم‎) (c. 31 December, 695- 18 July, 715) was an Umayyad general who conquered the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus river (now a part of Pakistan) at the age of seventeen. He was born in the city of Taif (in modern day Saudi Arabia). The conquest of Sindh and Punjab began the Islamic era in South Asia and continues to lend the Sindh province of Pakistan the nickname Bab-e-Islam (باب الاسلام The Gateway of Islam).

Life and career
A member of the Thaqeef tribe, which is still settled in and around the city of Taif, Muhammad bin Qasim's father was Qasim bin Yusuf قاسم بن یوسف)) who died when Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) was young, leaving his mother in charge of his education. Umayyad governor Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf(حجاج بن یوسف) , Muhammad bin Qasim's paternal uncle, was instrumental in teaching Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم)about warfare and governance and was considered by many to be one of his uncle's greatest assets. Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) married his cousin Zubaidah (ذبیدہ), Hajjaj's daughter, shortly before going to Sindh(سندھ) . Another paternal uncle of Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) was Muhammad bin Yusuf(محمد بن یوسف) , governor of Yemen (یمن). Under Hajjaj's patronage, Muhammad bin Qasim(محمد بن قاسم) was made governor of Persia(فارس) , where he succeeded in putting down a rebellion. At the age of seventeen, he was sent by Caliph Al-Walid I (خلیفہ ولید الاول)to lead an army towards South Asia into what are today the Sindh and Punjab regions of Islamic Republic of Pakistan (اسلامی جمہوریہ پاکستان).

Reason for attack on Sindh
During those times, some Muslim traders living in Ceylon died and the ruler of Ceylon sent their widows and orphans back to Baghdad. They made their journey by sea with pilgrims. The King of Ceylon also sent many valuable presents for Walid and Hajjaj. As the eight-ship caravan passed by the seaport of Daibul, Hindu pirates looted it and took the women and children prisoner. When news of this attack reached Hajjaj, he demanded that Dahir return the Muslim captives and the looted items. He also demanded that the culprits be punished. Dahir replied that he had no control over the pirates and was, therefore, powerless to rebuke them. On this Hajjaj decided to invade Sindh. Two small expeditions sent by him failed to accomplish their goal. Thus, in order to free the prisoners and to punish the guilty party, Hajjaj decided to undertake a huge offensive against Dahir, who was patronizing the pirates. The another reason for attack was Raja Dahir's policies. As he was oppressive especially towards the down trodden sections of the society. The oppressed classes of Sindh were thus seeing towards the Muslims as emancipators and the Muslims who were entrusted by Allah with the duty to fight against oppression all over the world and to establish a just society, were ready to help the people of Sindh with Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) against the local ruler was the proof of their feelings about the Muslims.

When Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) began the invasion of Debal, the ruler of Sindh (سندھ)Raja Dahir (راجا داہر) was staying in his capital Alor (Nawabshah نواب شاہ ) about 500 kms. away. Dabal was in the charge of a governor with a garrison of four to six thousand Rajput soldiers and a few thousand Brahmans, and therefore Raja Dahir did not march to its defence immediately. All this while, the young invader was keeping in close contact with Hajjaj, soliciting the latter’s advice even on the smallest matters. So efficient was the communication system that letters were written every three days and replies were received in seven days, so that the campaign was virtually directed by the veteran Hajjaj ibn Yusuf(حجاج بن یوسف) himself. When the siege of Debal had continued for some time a defector informed Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم about how the temple could be captured. Thereupon the Arabs, planting their ladders stormed the citadel-temple and swarmed over the walls. As per Islamic injunctions, the inhabitants were invited to accept Islam. The carnage lasted for three days. The temple was razed and a mosque built. Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم laid out a Muslim quarter, and placed a garrison of 4,000 in the town. As this was the pattern of all future sieges and victories of Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم - as indeed of all future Muslim invaders of sub-continent - it may be repeated. Inhabitants of a captured fort or town were invited to accept Islam.

At Ar-rur (Nawabshah نواب شاہ ) he was met by Dahir's forces and the eastern Jats in battle. Dahir died in the battle, his forces were defeated and a triumphant Muhammad bin Qasim took control of Sindh.

Political setting
The general populace was encouraged to carry on with their trades and taxes and tributes settled.

With Sindh secured Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم sent expeditions to Surashtra, where his generals made peaceful treaty settlements with the Rashtrakuta. Sea trade from Central India passed to Byzantium via the ports here, and the Arabs wished to tax these as well, especially if commerce might be diverted here from the Sindhi ports. Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم wrote out letters to "kings of Hind" to surrender and accept Islam, and subsequently 10,000 cavalry were sent to Kannauj asking them to submit and pay tribute before his recall ended the campaign.

Besides being a great general, Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) was also an excellent administrator. He established peace and order as well as a good administrative structure in the areas he conquered. He was a kind hearted and religious person. He had great respect for other religions. Hindu and Buddhist spiritual leaders were given stipends during his rule. The poor people of the land were greatly impressed by his policies and a number of them embraced Islam. Those who stuck to their old religions erected statues in his honor and started worshiping him after his departure from their land.

Military and political strategy
The military strategy had been outlined by Hajjaj ibn Yousuf(حجاج بن یوسف) When Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sindh, Hajjaj arranged for special messengers between Basra and Sindh, and told the general never to take any step without his advice. This order was followed to the letter during the campaign. “When you advance in the battle, see that you have the sun behind your backs,” Hajjaj wrote to his cousin just before the famous storming of Debal. “If the sun is at your back then its glare will not prevent you from having a full view of the enemy. Engage in fight immediately, and ask for the help of Allah. If anyone of the people of Sindh ask for mercy grant them aman ( امانsafety and protection), do but not to the combatants (ahl-i-harb اہل حرب), who must all be put to the sword or arrest and imprison them. Whoever does not fight against us, permit them to build the temples of those they worship. No one is prohibited from, or punished for, following his own religion, and let no one prohibit it, so that these people may live happily in their homes.” This edict of Hajjaj bin Yousuf (حجاج بن یوسف)had a lasting influence in the history of Muslim sub continent. By giving the Buddhists and Hindus the status of “zimmis,” and imposing “protection tax” ("جزبہ “jizya”) on them.settle their tribute( اموال amwal) as zimmah .‍ذمی/ذمہ). responsibility).”

The Arabs' first concern was to facilitate the conquest of Sindh with the fewest casualties while also trying to preserve the economic infrastructure. Towns were given two options: submit to Islamic authority peacefully or be attacked by force (anwattan), with the choice governing their treatment upon capture. The capture of towns was usually accomplished by means of a treaty with a party from among the enemy, who were then extended special privileges and material rewards. There were two types of such treaties, "Sulh" ) ‎صلح peace treaty) or "ahd-e-wasiq (عہد واسق capitulation)" and "aman (امان surrender/ peace)". Upon the capture of towns and fortresses, Muhammad bin Qasim ((محمد بن قاسم performed executions as part of his military strategy, but they were limited to the ahl-i-harb ( اہل حرب fighting men).

Where resistance was strong, prolonged and intensive, often resulting in considerable Arab casualties, Muhammad bin Qasim's response was dramatic, inflicting 6,000 deaths at Rawar, between 6,000 and 26,000 at Brahmanabad, 4,000 at Iskalandah and 6,000 at Multan. Conversely, in areas taken by sulh ) ‎صلح peace treaty), such as Armabil, Nirun, and Aror, resistance was light and few casualties occurred. Sulh ) ‎صلح peace treaty) appeared to be Muhammad bin Qasim's preferred mode of conquest, the method used for more than 60% of the towns and tribes recorded by Baladhuri or the Chachnama. At one point, he was actually berated by Hajjaj for being too lenient. Meanwhile, the common folk were often pardoned and encouraged to continue working; Hajajj ordered that this option not be granted to any inhabitant of Daybul, yet Qasim still bestowed it upon certain groups and individuals.

After each major phase of his conquest, Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) attempted to establish law and order in the newly-conquered territory by showing religious tolerance and incorporating the ruling class - the Brahmins and Shramanas - into his administration.

End of Life
Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) was known for his obedience to the ruler. Walid bin Abdul Malik (ولید بن عبدالمالک)died and was succeeded by his younger brother Suleman (سلیمان) as the Caliph. Suleman (سلیمان)was an enemy of Hajjaj and thus ordered Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) back to the kingdom. Muhammad bin Qasim (محمد بن قاسم) knew of the animosity between the two. He was aware that due to this enmity, he would not be well treated. He could have easily refused to obey the Caliph's orders and declare his independence in Sindh. Yet he was of the view that obeying ones ruler is the duty of a general and thus he decided to go back to the center. His followers wept bitterly, warning him that he was going back to a certain death. We don’t know what he said in reply, if he said anything. We do know, however, that shortly afterwards, he was put behind bars where he died at age of twenty in the prison of Wasit, just before he died he recited an Arabic couplet to the effect: “They wasted me at the prime of my youth, and what a youth they wasted: the one who was a defender of their borders.” He became a victim to party politics. Many historians believe that had he been given a few more years, he would have conquered the entire South Asian region.

Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Awzalagh al-Farabi

2009-07-27T15:26:00.010+06:00

Biography
Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Awzalagh al-Farabi ابو نصر محمّد ابن طرخان ابن اوظلاغ الفارابی was born in ah 257/ad 870. The existing variations in the basic accounts of al-Farabi's origins and pedigree indicate that they were not recorded during his lifetime or soon thereafter by anyone with concrete information, but due to his work In the arena of metaphysics ( he has been rightly be acclaimed as one of the greatest of Islamic philosophers of all time and some designated him 'Father of Islamic Neoplatonism'). The information were gathered for record was found after finishing his early school years in Farab فاراب and Bukharaبغارہ , Farabi moved to Baghdad بغدادin 901 to pursue higher studies.

Persian origin
The oldest known document regarding his background, written by the medieval Arab historian Ibn Abī Uṣaibi ابن ابی عصید (died in 1269), mentions that al-Farabi's fore-fathers were of Persian descent۔ Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Shahrūzī محمّد ابن محمود الشیرازی who lived around 1288 A.D. and has written an early biography also has stated that Farabi hailed from a Persian family. Ibn al-Nadimابن الندیم , a younger contemporary of Farabi and a close friend of Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī (Farabi's closest and most successful student), states Farabi's origins to lie in Faryāb in Khorasanخراسان . Faryāb is also the name of a province in today's Afghanistan. The Dehkhoda Dictionary - based on Ibn Abī Uṣaibia's accounts - also calls him Persian (فارسی المنتسب‎), mentioning the fact that his father was a member of the Persian-speaking Samanid court of Central Asia. The older Persian form Parabپاراب (Persian word meaning cultivated land by streams) is given in the historical account Ḥudūd al Ālam حدودالعالم or his birthplace. Farabi has in a number of his works references and glosses in Persianفارسی and Sogdian pointing to an Iranian-speaking Central Asian origin. A Persian origin is also discussed by Peter J. King and some other western sources as well a comprehensive source on Islamic Philosophy written in Arabic by the Egyptian scholar Prof. Hanna Fakhuri.
Turkic origin
Al-Farabi's face appeared on the currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan جمہوریہ قازقستان

The oldest known reference to a possible Turkic origin is given by the medieval historian Ibn Khallekān (died in 1282), who claimed that Farabi was born in the small village of Wasij near Farab (in what is today Otrar, Kazakhstan) of Turkic parents, and in the following decades and centuries, many others copied his work. But scholars criticize Ibn Khallekān's statement, as it is only aimed to ridicule the earlier reports of Ibn Abī Uṣaibia, and seems to have the sole purpose to prove that Farabi was a Turk. In this context, it is criticized that Ibn Khallekān was also the first to use the additional nisba نسپت(surname) "al-Turk" - a nisba Farabi never had. Ibn Khallekān's statement also contradicts Ibn al-Nadim and Yaḥyā ibn Adī, both contemporaries of Farabi, who had reported that Farabi's birthplace was Faryāb in Khorasan (in modern Afghanistan). Ibn Khallekān's accounts are also partially contradicted by the above mentioned fact that Farabi has in many of his writings references and glosses in Persian, Sogdian, and Greek, but not in Turkish.

While his name tends to be overshadowed by that of Ibn Sina, a well-known story tells how Ibn Sina sought in vain to understand Aristotle's Metaphysics, and it was only through a book by al-Farabi on the intentions of the Metaphysics that understanding finally came to him. However, unlike Ibn Sina, al-Farabi has left us no autobiography and we know far less about his life in consequence. Considerable myth has become attached to the man: it is unlikely, for example, that he really spoke more than seventy languages, and we may also query his alleged ascetic lifestyle. We do know that he was born in Turkestan and later studied Arabic in Baghdad; it has been claimed that most of his books were written here. He travelled to Damascus, Egypt, Harran and Aleppo, and in the latter city the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla سیف الدّولہbecame his patron. He died in Damascus.

Contributions
Farabi made notable contributions to the fields of logic, mathematics, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology and sociology.
Al-Farabi became an expert in philosophy and logic, and also in music: one of his works is entitled Kitab al-musiqa al-kabir (کتاب الموسقا الکبیر -The Great Book of Music). However, perhaps the book for which he is best known is that whose title is abbreviated to al-Madina al-fadila ( - المدینہ الفضیلہThe Virtuous City), and which is often compared, misleadingly in view of its Neoplatonic orientation, to Plato's Republic. Other major titles from al-Farabi's voluminous corpus included the Risala fi'l-'aql ( - رسالہ فی العقلEpistle on the Intellect), Kitab al-huruf ( - کتاب الحروفThe Book of Letters) and Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum ( - کتاب العشاءالعلومThe Book of the Enumeration of the Sciences).

1. Logic
Al-Farabi was also the first Muslim logician to develop a non-Aristotelian logic. He discussed the topics of future contingents, the number and relation of the categories, the relation between logic and grammar, and non-Aristotelian forms of inference. He is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being Takhayyul (تخیّل idea) and the second being Thubut ( ثبوتproof).

2. Metaphysics
Majid Fakhry (1983) has described al-Farabi as 'the founder of Arab Neo-Platonism and the first major figure in the history of that philosophical movement since Proclus'. This should be borne in mind as we survey the metaphysics of the philosopher whom the Latin Middle Ages knew as Abunaser and whom the Arabs designated the 'Second Master' (after Aristotle). It should be noted that al-Farabi was an Aristotelian as well as a Neoplatonist: he is said, for example, to have read On the Soul two hundred times and even the Physics forty times. It should then come as no surprise that he deploys Aristotelian terminology, and indeed there are areas of his writings that are quite untouched by Neoplatonism. Furthermore, al-Farabi tried to demonstrate the basic agreement between Aristotle and Plato on such matters as the creation of the world, the survival of the soul and reward and punishment in the afterlife. In al-Farabi's conception of God, essence and existence fuse absolutely with no possible separation between the two. However, there is no getting away from the fact that it is the Neoplatonic element which dominates so much else of al-Farabi's work. We see this, for example, in the powerful picture of the transcendent God of Neoplatonism which dominates al-Madina al-fadilaالمدینہ الفضیلہ. We see this too in al-Farabi's references to God in a negative mode, describing the deity by what he is not: he has no partner, he is indivisible and indefinable. And perhaps we see the Neoplatonic element most of all in the doctrine of emanation as it is deployed in al-Farabi's hierarchy of being.

3. Epistemology
Farabian epistemology has both a Neoplatonic and an Aristotelian dimension. Three primary Arabic sources for these are al-Farabi's Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum کتاب العلم , Risala fi'l-'aql رسالہ فی العقلand Kitab al-huruf.کتاب الحروف
It is the second of these works, Risala fi'l-'aql رسالہ فی العقل, which provides perhaps the most useful key to al-Farabi's complex theories of intellection. In this work he divides 'aql عقل(intellect or reason) into six major categories in an attempt to elaborate the various meanings of the Arabic word 'aqlعقل . First, there is what might be termed discernment or prudence; the individual who acts for the good is characterized by this faculty, and there is clearly some overlap with the fourth kind of intellect, described below. The second of al-Farabi's intellects is that which has been identified with common sense; this intellect has connotations of 'obviousness' and 'immediate recognition' associated with it. Al-Farabi's third intellect is natural perception. He traces its source to Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, and it is this intellect which allows us to be certain about fundamental truths. It is not a skill derived from the study of logic, but it may well be inborn. The fourth of the six intellects may be characterized as 'conscience': this is drawn by the philosopher from Book VI of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. It is a quality whereby good might be distinguished from evil and results from considerable experience of life.

Al-Farabi's fifth intellect is both the most difficult and the most important. He gives most space to its description in his Risala fi'l-'aql رسالہ فی العقل and considers it to be of four different types: potential intellect, actual intellect, acquired intellect and agent or active intellect. 'Aql bi'l-quwwa عقل بلقوہ (potential intellect) is the intellect which, in Fakhry's words, has the capacity 'of abstracting the forms of existing entities with which it is ultimately identified' (Fakhry 1983: 121). Potential intellect can thus become 'aql bi'l-fi’l عقل بی الفیہ (actual intellect). In its relationship to the actual intellect, the third sub-species of intellect, 'aql mustafad عقل مستفادہ (acquired intellect) is, to use Fakhry's words again, the 'the agent of actualization' to the actualized object. Finally, there is the 'aql al-fa''al عقل فعال (agent or active intellect), which was described in §2 above and need not be elaborated upon again.

The sixth and last of the major intellects is Divine Reason or God himself, the source of all intellectual energy and power. Even this brief presentation of Farabian intellection must appear complex; however, given the complexity of the subject itself, there is little option.
The best source for al-Farabi's classification of knowledge is his Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum .کتاب العشاءالعلوم This work illustrates neatly al-Farabi's beliefs both about what can be known and the sheer range of that knowledge. Here he leaves aside the division into theological and philosophical sciences which other Islamic thinkers would use, and divides his material instead into five major chapters. Through all of them runs a primary Aristotelian stress on the importance of knowledge.
Chapter 1 deals with the 'science of language',
Chapter 2 formally covers the 'science of logic',
Chapter 3 is devoted to the 'mathematical sciences',
Chapter 4 surveys physics and metaphysics,
Chapter 5 encompasses 'civil science' (some prefer the term 'political science'),
Jurisprudence and scholastic theology. A brief examination of these chapter headings shows that a total of eight main subjects are covered; not surprisingly, there are further subdivisions as well. To give just an examples, the second chapter on science of logic subdivided into two Takhayyul (تخیّل idea) and Thubut ( ثبوتproof)۔ . Third chapter on the mathematical sciences embraces the seven subdivisions of arithmetic, geometry, optics, astronomy, music, weights and 'mechanical artifices'; these subdivisions in turn have their own subdivisions. Thus al-Farabi's epistemology, from what has been described both in this section and §2 above, may be said to be encyclopedic in range and complex in articulation, with that articulation using both a Neoplatonic and an Aristotelian voice.

4. Political philosophy
The best known Arabic source for al-Farabi's political philosophy is al-Madina al-fadilaالمدینہ الفضیلہ . While this work undoubtedly embraces Platonic themes, it is in no way an Arabic clone of Plato's Republic. Al-Farabi has a number of political divisions for his world. He identifies, for example, three types of society which are perfect and grades these according to size. His ideal virtuous city, which gives its name to the whole volume, is that which wholeheartedly embraces the pursuit of goodness and happiness and where the virtues will clearly abound. This vicious city is compared in its function to the limbs of a perfectly healthy body. By stark contrast, al-Farabi identifies four different types of corrupt city: these are the ignorant city (al-madina al-jahiliyyaالمدینہ الجاہلیہ ), the dissolute city (al-madina al-fasiqaالمدینہ الفاسقہ ), the turncoat city (al-madina al-mubaddala المدینہ المبادّلہ) and the straying city (al-madina al-dalla المدینہ الدلّہ). The souls of many of the inhabitants of such cities face ultimate extinction, while those who have been the cause of their fall face eternal torment. In itemizing four corrupt societies, al-Farabi was surely aware of Plato's own fourfold division of imperfect societies in the Republic into diarchy(مخلوط) , oligarchy (طبقہ امرا), democracy (جمہوریت)and tyranny( جبری/جابرانہ) . The resemblance, however, is more one of structure (four divisions) rather than of content.
At the heart of al-Farabi's political philosophy is the concept of happiness (sa'ada سعادۃ ). The virtuous society (al-ijtima' al-fadil الاجتماع الفاضل ) is defined as that in which people cooperate to gain happiness. The virtuous city (al-madina al-fadilaالمدینۃ الفضیلہ ) is one where there is cooperation in achieving happiness. The virtuous world (al-ma'mura al-fadilaالمعمورۃالفضیلہ ) will only occur when all its constituent nations collaborate to achieve happiness. Al-Farabi realizes that such a society is rare and will require a very specific set of historical circumstances in order to be realized, which means very few societies will ever be able to attain this goal.
Al-Farabi followed the Greek paradigm and the highest rank of happiness was allocated to his ideal sovereign whose soul was 'united as it were with the Active Intellect'.

5. Music and sociology
Farabi wrote books on early Muslim sociology and a notable book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa (The Book of Music). According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Mehdi Aminrazavi: the book of Kitab al-Musiqa is in reality a study of the theory of Persian music of his day although in the West it has been introduced as a book on Arab music. He presents philosophical principles about music, its cosmic qualities and its influences. Al-Farabi's treatise Meanings of the Intellect dealt with music therapy, where he discussed the therapeutic effects of music on the soul.

6. Influence
The impact of al-Farabi's work on Ibn Sina was not limited merely to illuminating Aristotle's Metaphysics. It was with good reason that al-Farabi was designated the 'Second Master' (after Aristotle). One modern scholar recently acknowledged the dependence of Ibn Sina on al-Farabi in a book dealing with both which he entitled The Two Farabis (Farrukh 1944). And if Aquinas (§9) did not derive his essence-existence doctrine from al-Farabi but from the Latinized Ibn Sina, as is generally assumed, there is no doubt that Farabian concepts of essence and existence provided a base for the elaborated metaphysics of Ibn Sina and thence of Aquinas. Finally, the briefest of comparisons between the tenfold hierarchy of intellection produced by al-Farabi and the similar hierarchy espoused by Ibn Sina, each of which gives a key role to the Tenth Intellect, shows that in matters of emanation, hierarchy and Neoplatonic intellection, Ibn Sina owes a considerable intellectual debt to his predecessor.

Al-Farabi influenced many other thinkers as well. A glance at the period between ah 256/ad 870 and ah 414/ad 1023 and at four of the major thinkers who flourished in this period serves to confirm this: Yahya ibn 'Adi, Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani, Abu 'l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-'Amiri and Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi may all be said to constitute in one form or another a 'Farabian School'. The Christian Monophysite Yahya ibn 'Adi studied in Baghdad under al-Farabi and others. Like his master, Yahya was devoted to the study of logic; like his master also, Yahya held that there was a real link between reason, ethics and politics.

Whether or not al-Farabi actually intended to outline a political programme in his writings remains a matter of dispute amongst academics. Henry Corbin, says that his ideas should be understood as a "prophetic philosophy" instead of being interpreted politically. On the other hand, Charles Butterworth contends that nowhere in his work does al-Farabi speak of a prophet-legislator or revelation (even the word philosophy is scarcely mentioned), and the main discussion that takes place concerns the positions of "king" and "statesmen". Occupying a middle position is David Reisman, who like Corbin believes that al-Farabi did was using different types of society as examples, in the context of an ethical discussion, to show what effect correct or incorrect thinking could have. Lastly, Joshua Parens argues that al-Farabi was slyly asserting that a pan-Islamic society could not be made, by using reason to show how many conditions (such as moral and deliberative virtue) would have to be met, thus leading the reader to conclude that humans are not fit for such a society. Some other authors like Mykhaylo Yakubovych attest that for al-Farabi religion (milla ملّت) and philosophy (falsafaفلسفہ ) consituted the same praxeological value (i.e. basis for amal al-fadhil – عمل الفاضل"virtuos deed"), while its epistemological level (ilm - "knowledge") was different.

MOHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYA AL-RAZI

2009-07-13T11:57:00.004+06:00

Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (ابو بکر محمد ابن زکریا الرازی) born on 28 August 865 and died on 6 October 925 in (the Persian Empire, now Iran (Ray near Tehran. Razi achieved mastery in a number of fields, initially, he was interested in music but later on he learnt medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry and philosophy from a student of Hunayn Ibn Ishaq (حنین ابن اسحاق) , who was well versed in the ancient Greek, Persian and Sub-Continent systems of medicine and in other subjects. He also studied under Ali Ibn Rabban(علی ابن ربان) .

Around the age of thirty he was first placed in-charge of the first Royal Hospital at Ray, from where he left for Baghdad (now in Iraq), where he was active in the reconstruction of the city hospital, where he remained the head of its famous Muqtadari Hospital for along time.. Al-Razi became famous as the most prominent physician in the Islamic world, his fame comparable only to that of another Persian physician, Ibn Sina. The practical experience gained at the well-known Muqtadari Hospital helped him in his chosen profession of medicine. At an early age he gained eminence as an expert in medicine and alchemy, so that patients and students flocked to him from distant parts of Asia.

Razi was a Hakim, an alchemist and a philosopher. In medicine, his contribution was so significant that it can only be compared to that of Ibn Sina. Some of his written works in medicine have been widely studied, Latin editions of which remained in use as late as the seventeenth century in Europe, e.g. Kitab al- Mansoori (کتاب المنصوری), Al-Hawi (الحاوی), Kitab al-Mulooki (کتاب الملوکی)and Kitab al-Judari wa al- Hasabah(کتاب الجزداری و حسابہ) earned everlasting fame. Kitab al-Mansoori(کتاب المنصوری) , which was translated into Latin in the 15th century C.E., comprised ten volumes and dealt exhaustively with Greco-Arab medicine(ادویات العربیہ و یونانیہ) . From him we have the earliest distinction between smallpox and measles, and the understanding that smallpox occurs only once in a person's life. As a skilled chemist he recognized the toxicity of arsenic (arsenic oxide), but prescribed small doses of this compound in the treatment of many skin diseases and anemia.

He was a prolific author, who has left monumental treatises on numerous subjects. He has more than 200 outstanding scientific contributions to his credit, out of which about half deal with medicine and 21 concern alchemy. He also wrote on physics, mathematics, astronomy and optics, but these writings could not be preserved. A number of his books, including Jami-fi-al-Tib , Mansoori (کتاب المنصوری), al-Hawi(الحاوی) , Kitab al-Jadari wa al-Hasabah(کتاب الجزداری و حسابہ), al-Malooki (کتاب الملوکی) , Maqalah fi al- Hasat fi Kuli wa al-Mathana (مقالہ فی الکلی و المتحانہ), Kitab al-Qalb (کتاب القالب), Kitab al-Mafasil (کتاب المفاصیل), Kitab-al- 'Ilaj al-Ghoraba (کتاب العلاج الغربا), Bar al-Sa'ah (بارالصابا), and al-Taqseem wa al-Takhsir (التقسیم و التخسیر), have been published in various European languages. About 40 of his manuscripts are still extant in the museums and libraries of Iran, Paris, Britain, Rampur, and Bankipur. His contribution has greatly influenced the development of science, in general, and medicine, in particular.

Like his predecessor, the Arabian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (جابر بن حیّان), al-Razi was influenced in his alchemical views by Aristotle's theory of the four elements. Arabic alchemists had modified the Aristotelian system with respect to the composition of minerals, whereby two elements, mercury and sulfur, were responsible for "the mercurial and sulfurous principles" of a given substance. Later called "philosophical" Mercury and Sulfur, these elements (or principles) were thought to be the substances from which all metals were formed. This Sulfur-Mercury theory later became highly influential among European thinkers, for example, Isaac Newton. To this Sulfur and Mercury, al-Razi added a third constituent, a salty principle (which was later reproposed by Paracelsus). In al-Razi's opinion metals were comprised of particles of these elemental constituents, while the identity of the metal depended on the relationships between these indivisible particles and the empty spaces between them.

In contrast to Jabir, who inclined toward numerical mysticism, al-Razi became practiced in experimental work. This is apparent from his two most influential works, Kitab al-Asrar (کتاب الاسرارThe Book of Secrets ), and Kitab sirr al-Asrar (کتاب سرالاسرار -The Book of the Secret of Secrets ). In these works he gave several recipes for the alleged transmutation of common metals into precious ones, and crystal or glass into precious stones. Perhaps al-Razi's main contribution to chemistry was his attempt to systematize laboratory practices, to which end he listed contemporary laboratory equipment and techniques used in chemical experiments. Another influential contribution to chemistry was his classification of all the chemical substances he knew, for this is the earliest attempt of which we are aware. Al-Razi divided these substances into four main groups: vegetable, animal, derivative, and mineral. The last group consisted of six subgroups:
(1) spirits (volatile substances, such as mercury, sulfur, and arsenic sulfide);
(2) metals (gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and "karesin," probably a bronze composed of copper, zinc, and nickel);
(3) stones (ores and minerals of iron, copper, zinc, but also glass);
(4) atraments (metallic sulfates and their derivatives);
(5) boraces (borax, but also sodium carbonate [confused with borax]); and
(6) salts (in which categorization sodium chloride appears under four different terms, other salts being sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, and others).

In later life al-Razi became blind, which, according to some sources, was a result of his indefatigable activity—for he is said to have written approximately 200 works. He finally returned to Ray, where he died around 930 C.E. His name is commemorated in the Razi Institute near Tehran.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

2009-06-27T10:01:00.017+06:00

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, (also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) (Urdu: سید احمد خان} (October 17, 1817 – March 27, 1898), commonly known as Sir Syed (although this is technically incorrect; he would have properly been called "Sir Ahmed" as Sayyid is itself a title in this case), was an educator and politician, and an Islamic reformer and modernist. Sir Syed pioneered modern education for the Muslim community in sub-continent by founding the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which later developed into the Aligarh Muslim University. His work gave rise to a new generation of Muslim intellectuals and politicians who composed the Aligarh movement to secure the political future of Muslims in India. He is widely considered as a 'traitor' in leftist and patriotic circles of India.

Born into Mughal nobility, Sir Syed earned a reputation as a distinguished scholar while working as a jurist for the British East India Company. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 he remained loyal to the British and was noted for his actions in saving European lives. After the rebellion he penned the booklet Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind (اسباب بغاوت ہند The Causes of the Indian Mutiny) — a daring critique, at the time, of British policies that he blamed for causing the revolt. Believing that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook, Sir Syed began promoting Western-style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organizing Muslim intellectuals. Towards this goal, Sir Syed founded the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875 with the aim of promoting social and economic development of sub-continent’s Muslims.

One of the most influential Muslim politicians of his time, Sir Syed was suspicious of the independence movement and called upon Muslims to loyally serve the British Rule. He denounced nationalist organizations such as the Indian National Congress, instead forming organizations to promote Muslim unity and pro-British attitudes and activities. Sir Syed promoted the adoption of Urdu as the lingua franca of all Muslims of sub-continent, and mentored a rising generation of Muslim politicians and intellectuals. Although hailed as a great Muslim leader and social reformer, Sir Syed remains the subject of controversy for his views on Hindu-Muslim issues.

Early life
Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur was born at Delhi, India on 17th October, 1817, then the capital of the Mughal Empire. His family is said to have migrated from Herat (now in Afghanistan) in the time of Emperor Akbar, although by other accounts his family descended from Arabia. Many generations of his family had since been highly connected with the Mughal administration. His maternal grandfather Khwaja Fariduddin served as wazir ( وزیر Minister) in the court of Akbar Shah II. His paternal grandfather Syed Hadi held a mansab,( منصب designate) a high-ranking administrative position and honorary name of Jawwad Ali Khan in the court of Alamgir II. Sir Syed's father Mir Muhammad Muttaqi was personally close to Akbar Shah II and served as his personal adviser. However, Sir Syed was born at a time when rebellious governors, regional insurrections and the British colonialism had diminished the extent and power of the Mughal state, reducing its monarch to a figurehead status. With his elder brother Syed Muhammad Khan, Sir Syed was raised in a large house in a wealthy area of the city. They were raised in strict accordance with Mughal noble traditions and exposed to politics. Their mother Azis-un-Nisa played a formative role in Sir Syed's life, raising him with rigid discipline with a strong emphasis on education. Sir Syed was taught to read and understand the Qur'an by a female tutor, which was unusual at the time. He received an education traditional to Muslim nobility in Delhi. Under the charge of Maulvi Hamiduddin, Sir Syed was trained in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and religious subjects. He read the works of Muslim scholars and writers such as Sahbai, Rumi and Ghalib. Other tutors instructed him in mathematics, astronomy and Islamic jurisprudence. Sir Syed was also adept at swimming, wrestling and other sports. He took an active part in the Mughal court's cultural activities. His elder brother founded the city's first printing press in the Urdu language along with the journal Sayyad-ul-Akbar(سیدالاخبار) . Sir Syed pursued the study of medicine for several years, but did not complete the prescribed course of study. Until the death of his father in 1838, Sir Syed had lived a life customary for an affluent young Muslim noble. Upon his father's death, he inherited the titles of his grandfather and father and was awarded the title of Arif Jung (عارف جنگ) the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Financial difficulties put an end to Sir Syed's formal education, although he continued to study in private, using books on a variety of subjects. Sir Syed assumed editorship of his brother's journal and rejected offers of employment from the Mughal court. Having recognized the steady decline in Mughal political power, Sir Syed entered the British East India Company's civil service. He was appointed serestadar at the courts of law in Agra, responsible for record-keeping and managing court affairs. In 1840, he was promoted to the title of munshi(منشی) .

Scholarly works
The Social Reformer was a pioneering publication initiated by Sir Syed to promote liberal ideas in Muslim society. While continuing to work as a jurist, Sir Syed began focusing on writing on various subjects, mainly in Urdu. His career as an author began when he published a series of treatises in Urdu on religious subjects in 1842. He published the book A'thar-as-sanadid آثار لصنادید) Great Monuments) documenting antiquities of Delhi dating from the medieval era. This work earned him the reputation of a cultured scholar. In 1842, he completed the Jila-ul-Qulub bi Zikr-il Mahbub (جلال القلوب بذکرالمحبوب) and the Tuhfa-i-Hasan تحفۂ حسن)) along with the Tahsil fi jar-i-Saqil (تحصیل فی الجارصقیل) in1844. These works focused on religious and cultural subjects. In 1852, he published the two works Namiqa dar bayan masala tasawwur-i-Shaikh نمیق در بیان مسلۂ تصور شیخ)) and Silsilat ul-Mulk (سلسلۃالملک) He released the second edition of A'thar-as-sanadid (آثار لصنادید) in 1854. He also penned a commentary on the Bible — the first by a Muslim — in which he argued that Islam was the closest religion to Christianity, with a common lineage from Abrahamic religions.

Acquainted with high-ranking British officials, Sir Syed obtained close knowledge about British colonial politics during his service at the courts. At the outbreak of the Indian rebellion, on May 10, 1857, Sir Syed was serving as the chief assessment officer at the court in Bijnor. Northern India became the scene of the most intense fighting. The conflict had left large numbers of civilians dead. Erstwhile centres of Muslim power such as Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Kanpur were severely affected. Sir Syed was personally affected by the violence and the ending of the Mughal dynasty amongst many other long-standing kingdoms۔ Sir Syed and many other Muslims took this as a defeat of Muslim society. He lost several close relatives who died in the violence. Although he succeeded in rescuing his mother from the turmoil, she died in Meerut, owing to the privations she had experienced۔

In 1858, he was appointed to a high-ranking post at the court in Muradabad, where he began working on his most famous literary work. Publishing the booklet Asbab-e-Bhaghawath-e-Hind اسباب بغاوت ہند)) in 1859, Sir Syed studied the causes of the revolt. In this, his most famous work, he rejected the common notion that the conspiracy was planned by Muslim élites, who were insecure at the diminishing influence of Muslim monarchs. Sir Syed blamed the British East India Company for its aggressive expansion as well as the ignorance of British politicians regarding Local culture. However, he gained respect for British power, which he felt would dominate sub-continent for a long period of time. Seeking to rehabilitate Muslim political influence, Sir Syed advised the British to appoint Muslims to assist in administration. His other writings such as Loyal Muhammadans of India, Tabyin-ul-Kalam (تابین الکلام) and Series of Essays on the Life of Muhammad and Subjects Subsidiary Therein helped to create cordial relations between the British authorities and the Muslim community۔

Muslim reformer
Through the 1850s, Syed Ahmed Khan began developing a strong passion for education. While pursuing studies of different subjects, Sir Syed began to realize the advantages of Western-style education, which was being offered at newly-established colleges across India. Despite being a devout Muslim, Sir Syed criticized the influence of traditional dogma and religious orthodoxy, which had made most sub-continent’s Muslims suspicious of British influences. Sir Syed began feeling increasingly concerned for the future of Muslim communities. A scion of Mughal nobility, Sir Syed had been reared in the finest traditions of Muslim élite culture and was aware of the steady decline of Muslim political power across sub-continent. The animosity between the British and Muslims before and after the rebellion (Independence War) of 1857 threatened to marginalize Muslim communities for many generations. Sir Syed intensified his work to promote co-operation with British authorities, promoting loyalty to the Empire amongst Muslims. Committed to working for the upliftment of Muslims, Sir Syed founded a modern madrassa in Muradabad in 1859; this was one of the first religious schools to impart scientific education. Sir Syed also worked on social causes, helping to organize relief for the famine-struck people of the Northwest Frontier Province in 1860. He established another modern school in Ghazipur in 1863.

Upon his transfer to Aligarh in 1864, Sir Syed began working wholeheartedly as an educator. He founded the Scientific Society of Aligarh, the first scientific association of its kind in sub-continent. Modelling it after the Royal Society and the Royal Asiatic Society, Sir Syed assembled Muslim scholars from different parts of the country. The Society held annual conferences, disbursed funds for educational causes and regularly published a journal on scientific subjects in English and Urdu. Sir Syed felt that the socio-economic future of Muslims was threatened by their orthodox aversions to modern science and technology. He published many writings promoting liberal, rational interpretations of In face of pressure from religious Muslims; Sir Syed avoided discussing religious subjects in his writings, focusing instead on promoting education.

Advocacy of Urdu
The onset of the Hindi-Urdu controversy of 1867 saw the emergence of Sir Syed as a political leader of the Muslim community. He became a leading Muslim voice opposing the adoption of Hindi as a second official language of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). Sir Syed perceived Urdu as the lingua franca of Muslims. Having been developed by Muslim rulers of sub-continent, Urdu was used as a secondary language to Persian, the official language of the Mughal court. Since the decline of the Mughal dynasty, Sir Syed promoted the use of Urdu through his own writings. Under Sir Syed, the Scientific Society translated Western works only into Urdu. The schools established by Sir Syed imparted education in the Urdu medium. The demand for Hindi, led largely by Hindus, was to Sir Syed an erosion of the centuries-old Muslim cultural domination of India. Testifying before the British-appointed education commission, Sir Syed controversially exclaimed that "Urdu was the language of gentry and Hindi that of the vulgar. His remarks provoked a hostile response from Hindu leaders, who unified across the nation to demand the recognition of Hindi.

The success of the Hindi movement led Sir Syed to further advocate Urdu as the symbol of Muslim heritage and as the language of all the Muslims of sub-continent. His educational and political work grew increasingly centered around and exclusively for Muslim interests. He also sought to persuade the British to give Urdu extensive official use and patronage. His colleagues and protégés such as Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Maulvi Abdul Haq developed organisations such as the Urdu Defence Association and the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu انجمن ترقی اردو , committed to the perpetuation of Urdu. Sir Syed's protégé Shibli Nomani led efforts that resulted in the adoption of Urdu as the official language of the Hyderabad State and as the medium of instruction in the Osmania University جامعہ عثمانیہ . To Muslims in northern and western areas of suh-continent, Urdu had become an integral part of political and cultural identity. However, the division over the use of Hindi or Urdu further provoked communal conflict between Muslims and Hindus in sub-continent.

Founding Aligarh
On April 1, 1869, Sir Syed travelled to England, where he was awarded the “Order of the Star of India” from the British government on August 6. Travelling across England, he visited its colleges and was inspired by the culture of learning established after the Renaissance. Sir Syed returned to sub-continent in the following year determined to build a "Muslim Cambridge." Upon his return, he organized the "Committee for the Better Diffusion and Advancement of Learning among “Muhammadans" (Muslims) on December 26, 1870. Sir Syed described his vision of the institution he proposed to establish in an article written sometime in 1872 and re-printed in the Aligarh Institute Gazette of April 5, 1911:

I may appear to be dreaming and talking like Shaikh Chilli (شیخ چلی, a character) but we aim to turn this M.A.O. College into a University similar to that of Oxford or Cambridge. Like the churches of Oxford and Cambridge, there will be mosques attached to each College. The College will have a dispensary with a Doctor and a compounder, besides a Unani Hakim. It will be mandatory on boys in residence to join the congregational prayers (namaz) at all the five times. Students of other religions will be exempted from this religious observance. Muslim students will have a uniform consisting of a black alpaca, half-sleeved chugha and a red Fez cap. Bad and abusive words which boys generally pick up and get used to, will be strictly prohibited. Even such a word as a "liar" will be treated as an abuse to be prohibited. They will have food either on tables of European style or on chaukis in the manner of the Arabs… Smoking of cigarette or huqqa and the chewing of betels shall be strictly prohibited. No corporal punishment or any such punishment as is likely to injure a student's self-respect will be permissible. It will be strictly enforced that boys shall not discuss their religious differences in the College or in the boarding house. At present it is like a day dream. I pray to God that this dream may come true.

By 1873, the committee under Sir Syed issued proposals for the construction of a college in Aligarh. He began publishing the journal Tahzib al-Akhlaq (تہذیب الاخلاق Social Reformer) to spread awareness and knowledge on modern subjects and promote reforms in Muslim society. Sir Syed worked to promote reinterpretation of Muslim ideology in order to reconcile tradition with Western education. He argued in several books on Islam that the Qur'an rested on an appreciation of reason and natural law, making scientific inquiry important to being a good Muslim. Sir Syed established a modern school in Aligarh and, obtaining support from wealthy Muslims and the British, laid the foundation stone of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College on May 24, 1875. He retired from his career as a jurist the following year, concentrating entirely on developing the college and on religious reform. Sir Syed's pioneering work received support from the British. Although intensely criticized by orthodox religious leaders hostile to modern influences, Sir Syed's new institution attracted a large student body, mainly drawn from the Muslim gentry and middle classes. The curriculum at the college involved scientific and Western subjects, as well as Oriental subjects and religious education. The first chancellor was Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, a prominent Muslim noblewoman, and Sir Syed invited an Englishman, Theodore Beck, to serve as the first college principal. The college was originally affiliated with Calcutta University but was transferred to the Allahabad University in 1885. Near the turn of the 20th century, it began publishing its own magazine and established a law school. In 1920, the college was transformed into a university.

Political career
In 1878, Sir Syed was nominated to the Viceroy's Legislative Council. He testified before the education commission to promote the establishment of more colleges and schools across sub-continent. In the same year, Sir Syed founded the Muhammadan Association to promote political co-operation amongst Muslims from different parts of the country. In 1886, he organized the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference in Aligarh, which promoted his vision of modern education and political unity for Muslims. His works made him the most prominent Muslim politician in 19th century’s sub-continent, often influencing the attitude of Muslims on various national issues. He supported the efforts of political leaders Surendranath Banerjea and Dadabhai Naoroji to obtain representation for locals in the government and civil services. In 1883, he founded the Muhammadan Civil Service Fund Association to encourage and support the entry of Muslim graduates into the Indian Civil Service (ICS).

However, Sir Syed's political views were shaped by a strong aversion to the emerging nationalist movement, which was composed largely of Hindus. Sir Syed opposed the Indian National Congress (created in 1885) on the grounds that it was a Hindu-majority organization, calling on Muslims to stay away from it. While fearful of the loss of Muslim political power owing to the community's backwardness, Sir Syed was also averse to the prospect of democratic self-government, which would give control of government to the Hindu-majority population:
His fierce criticism of the Congress and Indian nationalists created rifts between Muslims and Hindus. At the same time, Sir Syed sought to politically ally Muslims to the British government. An avowed loyalist of the British Empire, Sir Syed was nominated as a member of the Civil Service Commission in 1887 by Lord Dufferin. In 1888, he established the United Patriotic Association at Aligarh to promote political co-operation with the British and Muslim participation in the government. Syed Ahmed Khan was knighted by the British government in 1888 and in the following year he received an LL.D. honoris causa from the Edinburgh University.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan lived the last two decades of his life in Aligarh, regarded widely as the mentor of 19th- and 20th century Muslim intellectuals and politicians. He remained the most influential Muslim politician in India, with his opinions guiding the convictions of a large majority of Muslims Battling illnesses and old age. This great scholar and leader died on 27th March, 1898, at Aligarh, India and was buried besides Sir Syed Masjid inside the campus of the Aligarh University. His funeral was attended by thousands of students, Muslim leaders and British officials. Sir Syed is widely commemorated across South Asia as a great Muslim reformer and visionary.

Sir Syed was mourned by a large number of friends and admirers both within and outside South Asia.