SYED AMEER ALI
Life history of Syed ameer ali
(1849-1928)
"By the efforts of this man, the hungry were fed, the naked were clothed, the sick healed and the wounded restored to health. The footsore refugee was helped on his way and many a mother clasps to her breast a living child that otherwise would have perished by the wayside. The despairing peasant, faced by the ruin of war, was again provided with implements to till the soil and seed corn was placed in his hands." This was the note left on the tomb of Syed Ameer Ali, along with red carnations, by the British Soldiers' Society. It reminded one of the great humanitarian work done by him during the Balkan Wars in the cause of alleviating human misery and suffering. A Muslim by birth, and a great Muslim scholar through a life dedicated to studies, his human sympathies were not confined and circumscribed by religious boundaries, but they were universal in their scope.
War had broken out in Tripolitania between Turkey and Italy. Human suffering sprawled like eternity on the battlefields, where the Red Cross Society was doing excellent work. But his discerning eyes visualised that he should organize relief work from England, and he brought into being the British Red Crescent Society, primarily to look after the wounded and the afflicted, who professed the Faith of Islam. "With characteristic energy he got to work, and aided by the generosity of H. H. the Aga Khan and other persons of all classes both Indian and English, he launched the British Red Crescent Society, which has since done such admirable work in many parts of the world." The Society rendered invaluable services to the afflicted Arabs. "I had the good fortune to be amongst the surgeons who went out and it gives me the greatest pleasure to testify to the fact that our work was entirely unhampered by any display of religious bigotry. I well remember taking my final instructions from Syed Amir Ali.
When I asked him if relief was to be confined to Muslims, he replied, "Although your first duty is to the Turkish and Arab wounded, you will never turn away any poor Christian or Jew, who presents himself to you in his hour of need." Although his life and work were devoted to educational advancement and to a greater degree of political consciousness among the Muslims of India, he was not a narrow-minded nationalist. He had a broad and universal vision of human progress, for reaching which goal national advances were definitely a great help, provided they were not exclusive or isolationist, nor anti-internationalist. "In my opinion, Nationalism pure and simple is a reversion to primitive tribal instincts. The first impulse of primitive man is to club his adversary belonging to another tribe, and to seize his belong- ings. The present day nationalists, speaking with the greatest respect, are equally uncompromising and equally intolerant. And this is not confined to any particular country."
His life and work influenced not only the times in which he lived, but they helped to give proper direction to political development among the Muslims of this sub-continent long after he died. "As an expounder of Islam in English, he had no equal. As a Muslim jurist, he was unrivalled; as an interpreter of Muslim Law, he was recognised as an authority in the İslamic world. As a stout champion of Muslim interests, he was known the world over." The first ancestor of Syed Ameer Ali to come to India was Ahmed Afzal Khan, who came as an officer with the conquering armies of Nadir Shah in ( 1739 ). "We trace our descent from the Prophet through his daughter Fatima. Our ances- tor, the eighth apostolic Imam, Ali surnamed Al-Raza, is buried at Mashhad, the principal city. of Khurasan in N.-E. Persia." Ahmad Afzal Khan came as a soldier of fortune, but he fell to the charm of India and decided to settle down permanently in India, making the small city of Mohan in Oudh his place of residence.
"The descendants of the Prophet (the Syeds) have ever since their arrival in India always settled in townships already occupied by kinsmen who had preceded them in the search for new homes. The four townships of Hillour, Barah in Muzaffargarh, Mohan and Bilgram in Oudh, were the favourite places at which they congregated." Ameer Ali's grand father, Munawar Ali Khan, was in the service of Nawab Asaf-ud Daula of Oudh as Revenue Collector, "a stawart man, bluff in his ways, rather fierce-looking with his upturned moustache." Munawar Ali Khan died in a battle in ( 1820 ) and his son, Saadat Ali, was brought up by his uncle, Sirajuddin Ali Khan, and ultimately qualified as a Hakim, a profession which Sirajuddin did not very much relish. He was very fond of travelling, and during one of his journeys he stayed with his cousin, Jaffar Ali Khan, Deputy Collector at Cuttack in Orissa. There he married the daughter of Shamshuddin Khan, a nobleman of Sambalpur, who bore him five sons, the fourth of whom was Syed Ameer Ali. The family settled in Cuttack, where Saadat Ali made the acquaintance of Malet, a judge of the Orissa High Court, and of Dr. Mowat, Director of Education in Bengal.
These two gentlemen persuaded Saadat Ali to give his sons a liberal English education, advice which he readily accepted. He came to Calcutta and got his three elder sons admitted in the Calcutta Madressah, Ameer Ali being an infant at that time. Saadat Ali soon tired of Calcutta and proceeded to Hooghly, where his two elder sons were admitted in the Mohsinia College. Saadat Ali was a great scholar in Arabic and Persian, and while engaged in writing the biography of the Holy Prophet, he died in ( 1856 ), a victim of cholera. Orphaned at a very early age in his life, Ameer Ali found a pillar of strength in his mother, who was a devout but fearless lady. As a boy, Ameer Ali was fond of shooting, and he had collected quite a few guns of his own at the age of fourteen.
Studious by nature, and a voracious reader, he showed early promise of a high educational career. Ameer Ali received his early education from a Maulvi at home in Urdu and Persian, and later joined the Hooghly College. "The College at Hooghly was divided into two water-tight compartments; one was called the Anglo-Persian department for Muslim students, the other was exclusively for Hindu youth." In his college days at Hooghly, Ameer Ali read most of the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Longfellow, and had mastered that monumental work, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In those formative years of his life, he was under the influence of a great Muslim scholar, Syed Karamat Ali, and with the help of Prof. Obaidullah Obaidi, he translated Syed Karamat Ali's Markhazi Ulum into English, this being his first literary venture, while he was yet in his teens. "Whatever knowledge of Muslim philosophy I happen to possess, I owe to Syed Karamat Ali." Syed Ameer Ali passed his B.A. in ( 1867 ), thus becoming one of the first Muslim graduates in India. In the following year, he passed his M.A. in History, thus being the first Bengali Muslim to get an M.A. degree. In ( 1868 ), he passed his law degree, and in the same year, being awarded a Government scholarship, he proceeded to England for higher studies by the P. & O. Ship, Simla. "Neither the ship nor the food in the saloon were at all to my taste..... The servant I had taken with me added to my troubles; he was a very particular Muslim and objected to everything on board".
He reached England after about a month's journey. "I lived in the family of the widow of a clergyman, a Mrs. Chase, until my return to India four years later. She treated me as one of themselves ..... London did not appear to me inhospitable or uninviting as it does to many foreigners." He joined the Inner Temple. During his early days, he was on visiting terms with some high-ranking families in the social life of London as also a close acquaintance of some eminent men of letters and of public life. Syed Ameer Ali, mainly through the efforts of Miss Manning, helped in the formation of the National Indian Association in ( 1871 ), which was the social meeting ground for Indian students and such English families as were interested in Indian affairs.
His book, The Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Mohammad, which appeared in (1873 ), made a deep and favourable impression on those Englishmen who read it. He dedicated this book to his elder brother, Syed Waris Ali, who had recently died of a heart attack. "Regarded simply as a literary achievement, we have never read anything issuing from the educated classes in this country, which could be compared with it, and the Muslims of India are to be congratulated on the possession of so able a man in their ranks." When in ( 1871 ), Sir Syed Ahmed visited England, Syed Ameer Ali frequently called on the sage of Aligarh and discussed with him problems confronting the Muslims of India.
The two differed in their choice of solutions to the existing difficulties. "Syed Ahmed Khan pinned his faith in English education and academical training. I admitted their importance but urged that, unless as a community, their political training ran on parallel lines with that of their Hindu counterparts, they were certain to be sumberged in the rising tide of the new nationalism. He would not admit the correctness of my forecast, but I believe the birth of the National Congress opened his eyes." Syed Ameer Ali was called to the Bar on the 27th of January, ( 1873 ), and shortly after he sailed by steamer from Genoa for Bombay. On his way from London to Genoa, he stopped in Paris and met that great French orientalist, M. Garcin de Tassy, who spoke to him in perfect and chaste Urdu, and recited numerous couplets by heart of Sauda and Atesh. "M. de Tassy was one of the most charming persons."
Returning to India, he got himself enrolled as an advocate in the Calcutta High Court in February 1873, there being only three other Indian barristers practising at that High Court. His success at the Bar was instantaneous, and he soon had a flourishing practice, his reputation as an authority on Mohamadan Law being unrivalled. "My first two cases, in which important questions of Muslim Law were involved, established me as an expert in that branch of the law." He was appointed a lecturer in Muslim Law in Calcutta University, and in ( 1877 ) he was appointed to officiate as Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta. Conditions in Calcutta bordered on lawlessness, and it was due to strict methods adopted and heavy punishments imposed by Syed Ameer Ali that, "In a few weeks peaceable citizens were able to go about their business without molestation or threat of blackmail."
It was entirely due to his efforts that a reformatory for juvenile offenders was opened at Alipore. "For 25 years I laboured to make the Reformatory a beneficent institution, and I only severed my connection with the Reformatory when I retired from the High Court Bench to go to England in ( 1904 )." Syed Ameer Ali had made a mark for himself, both as a conscientious Magistrate and as a public spirited citizen. He was, therefore, nominated as a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, in which capacity he served from ( 1878 ) to ( 1879 ), and again from 1881 to 1883. His splendid work in the Bengal Assembly was greatly appreciated, and in 1883 he was nomi- nated a member of the National Legislative Council, there being only two other Indians, both Hindus, who were members of the Imperial Council.
As a member of the Imperial Council, he threw his weight on the side of progressive legislation, and in this connection his outspoken advocacy for the acceptance of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, needs to be pecially mentioned. In ( 1875 ), the Calcutta Hindus had founded the Indian Association and the India League, which were in fact Hindu political organisations. Syed Ameer Ali was the first to clearly visualise that the Muslims should also organise themselves politically if they were to have an honoured place in Indian public life. With his characteristic zeal and devotion, he started a move to form the Central National Mohamadan Association, which was established in ( 1877 ), with Syed Ameer Ali as its founder Secretary. It soon came to have 53 branches spread all over India, and this gave a tremendous filip to political awakening among the Muslims of India.
He continued to serve this Association for over 25 years, during which time he rendered invaluable services to the cause of Muslim political advancement in India. "Syed Ameer Ali was the pioneer of political movements by Muslims in India and established the first political organisation of the Muslims." In one of his memoranda to Lord Morley, the Secretary of State for India, he wrote in 1909, "The Musalman population numbering fifty-three million, can hardly be dealt with as a minority. Though living intermixed with non-Muslims, they form a distinct nationality, divided by traditions of race, religion, and ideals." "For Syed Ameer Ali and myself, ( 1907 ) was a period of what I can best describe as guerilla warfare, whose aim was to keep Morley up to the mark.
We won in the end, but it was hard going. He can truly be said to have played a very important role in organising Muslims in the initial stages of their political struggle. "Ameer Ali was the first Muslim to realise the necessity of a political organisation. He established at Calcutta in ( 1877 ) the first political body of the Muslim community of the subcontinent." Submitting a memorandum on behalf of the Central National Mohammadan Association in ( 1892 ) to the Viceroy, Syed Ameer Ali demanded special consideration for the educational advancement of the Muslims of India, as also to give them adequate representation in Government services. Lord Dufferin issued a comprehensive resolution accepting those demands, and Syed Ameer Ali can, therefore, be considered to have rendered yeoman services to the Muslims of India in those difficult days. "The idea of a separate nationhood of Muslims was born in Bengal primarily under the leadership of Ameer Ali. His role in securing separate electorates has been recognised in the report of the Simon Commission."'
Syed Ameer Ali had an established and lucrative practice and he received many cases that were being decided in courts other than the Calcutta High Court. In ( 1884 ), he was engaged to defend the accused in an important case before the Sessions Judge in Karachi. During his visit to Karachi, he met that great educationalist of Sind Muslims, Hasanali Effendi, and the two discussed at great length the educational problems of the Muslims of Sind. In the course of a public speech that he made in a gathering of Muslims in Karachi, he exhorted them to shake off their lethargy, to read the writing on the wall, and to give their childrena liberal education in English. In ( 1885 ), the Indian National Congress was founded, and the Central National Mohammadan Association was one of its sponsors.
But one year later, seeing that the Congress was being largely dominated by Hindu interests, Syed Ameer Ali dissociated the National Mohammadan Association from the Congress, and laid stress on the separate political organisation of the Muslims of India. In 1889, he presided over the annual session of the All-India Mohammadan Educational Conference, and during the course of his presidential address he advised that Madressahs in Bengal should be organised on the model of the M.A.O. College, Aligarh. In 1890, he was appointed a judge of the Calcutta High Court, thus being the second Muslim in the subcontinent to be raised to the Bench. He retired from this office in 1904, and decided to settle down in England permanently. Perhaps, the fact that he had an English wife, and that his two sons were studying in England had a lot to do with this decision.
The London Branch of the All-India Muslim League was established in May ( 1908 ), and His Highness the Aga Khan appointed Syed Ameer Ali as its first President. "The first task to which I set myself was to launch the London Muslim League.... The object of our organisation, inter alia, was.... to promote concord and harmony among the different nationalities of India." On 27th January, ( 1909 ), Syed Ameer Ali led a deputation on behalf of the London Branch of the Muslim League to Lord Morley, Secretary of State for India, demanding separate electorates for the Muslims of India in Legislative Assemblies and in Local Bodies. "The fulfilment of the Muslims' demand for separate electorates was largely due to activities undertaken under the enthusiastic zeal of Ameer Ali." With his characteristic spirit of decision, Syed Ameer Ali made the London Branch of the Muslim League a dynamic and live political organisation. He issued in its name a number of pamphlets and letters to the press, explaining the Muslim point of view on many problems.
He also organised in London the British Red Crescent Society during the Balkan Wars and the War between Turkey and Italy, as the British Red Cross Society was apathetic towards the Muslim sufferers and victims of war. The relief work was started by the British Red Crescent Society in February, ( 1912 ), and it did some excellent work, which came in for a good deal of praise from non-partisan English observers as well. The British Minister at Sofia had cabled Syed Ameer All that the need for relief work was great and a mission would be welcomed. "The call could not be refused, particularly as a handsome special donation towards responding to it was made by His Highness the Aga Khan." Dr. Haigh was sent as head of the Mission and a number of lives were saved. "I am giving bread daily to nearly (45,000 ) people, on which the Mufti and other Turkish gentlemen assure me the city is practically dependent."
Believing that it was discreditable to the World of Islam that there was no mosque in London, Syed Ameer Ali "launched in November 1910 the project I had cherished of a mosque in London.... Comparatively a small proportion only of the large sum needed for a mosque in London was subscribed, and this fund is deposited in the Bank of England under the Trusteeship of Lord Ampthill, and H. H. The Aga Khan, associated with me." In ( 1909 ) Syed Ameer Ali was appointed a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, thus becoming the first Indian to hold that high office. His profound knowledge of Indian Law in general, and Muslim Law in particular, was of invaluable help.
Along with his work in the field of educational advancement and political awakening among the Muslims of India, Syed Ameer All continued to serve the cause of Islam by producing a number of books on Islam. His most notable contributions in this field were The Spirit of Islam, first published in ( 1891) in London, and A Short History of the Saracens, first published in ( 1899 ), also from London. Both these books occupy a unique position in the literature produced in England at this period, and his fame rests solidly as an author of great repute and as a scholar of profound learning on these two books. They have been published ever since their first appearance, in many editions, and have been translated into a number of languages.
His other works include, Islam, Women in Islam, Mohammadan Law, The Rights of Persia, The Personal Law of the Mohammadans, A Commentary on the Bengal Act, The Legal Position of Women in Islam. He often contributed letters and articles to the Observer, The Times, and the Nineteenth Century Review, focusing the attention of the British public on the problems facing the Muslims of the world in general and of India in particular. He wrote his Memoirs in 1928, and they appeared in series in ( 1931-32 ) in the Islamic Culture, published from Hyderabad, Deccan. When the First World War broke out, Syed Ameer Ali did all he could to organise medical relief for the Turks, and to advocate the cause of the world of Islam at a time, when it was feared that the interests of the Muslim countries would be sacrificed in order to satisfy some foreign powers and to create new spheres of influence for Western Powers in the Middle East.
"In June ( 1919 ) the Indian Muslims in England, under the leadership of Ameer Ali, the Aga Khan, and Sir Abbas Ali Baig addressed a memorial to the Prime Minister of England requesting that Turkey proper, Thrace and Constantinople be left intact and uninterfered with under the sovereignty of the Sultan. The Aga Khan and Ameer Ali addressed a letter to The Times advocating the same policy." This was a difficult period for the Muslims of the world, and their energetic advocacy by Syed Ameer Ali was a great source of strength to them. "My friend Syed Ameer Ali and I began an energetic campaign to put the real issues, so far as Turkey was concerned, before the British, and indeed world public opinion. I had private interviews with numerous influential statesmen, together we wrote long letters to The Times; on every possible public and private ocasion we made our views known."
The British Red Cross Society received frantic appeals for relief to the Moroccan War sufferers. The Aga Khan and Syed Ameer Ali in a joint letter to The Times wrote. "We regret, however, that the funds of the Society are not adequate for the purpose. The Committee, therefore, venture to appeal to the generosity of the public, which, in the relief of human suffering and distress, makes no discrimination of race or religion, for help to send out a properly equipped mission: We feel confident that both the French and Spanish authorities will afford every facility to such a mission of mercy."
In ( 1923 ), the Aga Khan and Syed Ameer Ali wrote a joint letter to Ismat Pasha of Turkey, inviting the attention of the Grand National Assembly, "That the religious leadership of the Sunni world should be continued intact in accordance with the Shariat." The letter was published in the newspapers of Constantinople, and it invited the full wrath of the Turks who were against the continuation of the Kaliphate, the editors of the papers being sentenced for publishing treasonable matter. The Public Prosecutor accused the Aga Khan and Syed Ameer Ali as 'the real criminals'. Thereupon, the Aga Khan and Syed Ameer Ali wrote a letter to the Times in which they said. "We recognise the signal service which Kamal Pasha rendered to the country, but the uncertainty surrounding the position of the Caliph being likely to cause disintegration of Islam, we thought we might bring this matter to the notice of the Turkish Assembly and urge that the Caliph's dignity might be placed on an assured position in order to maintain his prestige and command the confidence and esteem of the Sunni world."
The Muslims of the world had indeed a tireless champion in the person of Syed Ameer Ali. "His zeal and earnestness in the service of Islam had put Muslims all over the world under deep obligation to him. He was leading a retired life in a secluded corner of Berkshire in England, but his restless spirit for service always drove him into worthy public causes, which were beneficial to the Muslims of India and of the world. He was a loving husband and a devoted father, spending the twilight of his old age in the company of his wife and two sons, to all of whom he was so deeply attached. He was almost eighty, and he had now made his house in Polingford Manor in Sussex. "His aristocratic face set off by his thick iron grey hair and his white moustache made him a figure of utmost dignity." He knew his end was near, but he kept up a keen interest in his literary activities. He was now too old and sick to lead an active public life, and preferred to spend most of his time in his own house in Sussex. He died on the 3rd of August, ( 1928 ), and among those who attended his funeral were Maulana Mohammad All, Sir Ziauddin Ahmed, and Sir Abbas Ali Baig.
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