Muhammad Hamidullah ( ur, محمد حمیداللہ, translit=Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh; 19 February 1908 – 17 December 2002) was a scholar of

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

s (''

muhaddith Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism) consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...

)'' and

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

( faqih) and a prolific academic author. A

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

with competence in 22 languages, including Urdu (his mother tongue), Persian, Arabic, French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Turkish, and Russian, his dozens of books and hundreds of articles on

Islamic science Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Umayyads of Córdoba, the Abbadids of Seville, the Samanids, the Ziyarids, the Buyids in Persia, the Abbasid Caliphate an ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

appeared in several languages. He was still studying Thai at the age of 84.

Early life and background

Hamidullah was from the

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

area of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and was born in Hyderabad, capital city of then Hyderabad State, (now

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

), and hails from a family of scholars, the youngest amongst three brothers and five sisters. His family's roots lie in the

Nawayath The Nawayath (also spelled as Navayath and Nawayat and also called Nait, Naiti , Naithee and Naita) are an Indian community and a subgroup of Konkani Muslims. They speak the Nawayathi dialect of Konkani. The term, as described by Qanoon-e-Is ...

community, his ancestors were eminent scholars in their own right. He earned his BA, LLB and MA at

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate university, collegiate Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farma ...

. He travelled to Germany and was awarded D.Phil. by Bonn University in 1932. After serving in the faculty of Bonn as a lecturer in Arabic and Urdu for a short time, he went to France and registered at

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sor ...

for his second doctorate. He was awarded D.Litt. by the university after 11 months. He taught international law at Osmania University between 1936 and 1946. His ancestors and extended family were

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

, writers and

administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * ...

. His great grandfather Maulvi Mohammed Ghauth Sharfu'l-Mulk (d. 1822) was scholar of Islamic sciences, writing over 30 books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, including a seven volume exegesis of the Qur'an. His paternal grandfather

Qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

Mohammed Sibghatullah was a jurist and a scholar of repute writing an exegesis of the Holy Qu'ran as well as other books. He was also appointed Chief Judge of Madras (now Chennai) in 1855. Hamidullah's father Mufti Abu Mohammed Khalilullah, was a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence, a director of revenue in the government of Nizam of Hyderabad, and the pioneer in establishing an interest-free banking system in Hyderabad.

Career

In 1948, Hamidullah was appointed by the

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

as part of the delegation sent to London and the United Nations in New York to seek support against the invasion of the Nizam's territories by Indian Forces. Subsequently, he moved to Pakistan and was involved in writing of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

's constitution after partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. In 1948, he travelled to France, living there for virtually the remainder of his life, apart from travel to teaching posts he held in Turkey for a number of years. He also held a post with

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

from 1954, which ended in 1978. In 1985, he was awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award of Pakistan. The monetary part of the award was donated to the Islamic Research Academy, Islamabad. Hamidullah was the last remaining citizen of the erstwhile Hyderabad State (which following 1956 reorganisation was divided into 3 on linguistic basis, and absorbed into other states of India, most being in Andhra Pradesh, subsequently Telangana) and never obtained the citizenship of any other nation. Classed as a ''Refugee of Hyderabad'' by the French Government, which allowed him to stay in Paris, he remained exiled from his homeland after its annexation by the

Indian Government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 1950. Hamidullah devoted his whole life to scholarship and did not marry. Hamidullah is known for contributions to the research of

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

history, translations of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

into multiple languages and in particular into French (first by a Muslim scholar) and for the monumental biography of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

in French. He is also famous for discovering a missing work on Muhammad regarded as one of his great contributions to the

literature. The earliest Hadith manuscript still extant today, Sahifa Hammam bin Munabbah, was discovered in a Damascus library. Hammam bin Munabbah being a disciple of Sayyidina Abu Huraira, one of the

Sahaba The Companions of the Prophet ( ar, اَلصَّحَابَةُ; ''aṣ-ṣaḥāba'' meaning "the companions", from the verb meaning "accompany", "keep company with", "associate with") were the disciples and followers of Muhammad who saw or m ...

. It proved, that the earliest manuscripts had been absorbed into the much bigger later compilations.

Literary works

Having "authored over one hundred books in English, French, German, Arabic and Urdu, and about 1000 scholarly essays and articles on the various aspects of Islam and related areas", Abdul Azim Islahi, ''Muhammad Hamidullah and His Pioneering Works on Islamic Economics'', King Abdulaziz University Press (2015), p. 13 his notable publications include : * ''The Muslim Conduct of State: Being a Treatise on Siyar (Siyar), General Introduction'' (1941, 1953) * ''The First Written Constitution in the World'' (1941, 1975 and 1986) * ''Islamic Notion of Conflict of Laws'' (1945) * ''Die Rezeption Europaischen Rechts in Haiderabad'' (1953) * ''Le "Livre des genenalogies" 'al-Baladuriy by al-Baladuri' (1954) * ''Introduction to Islam'' (from 1957 onwards in numerous languages besides English) * ''Le Saint Coran: Traduction et commentaire de Muhammad Hamidullah avec la collaboration de M. Leturmy'' (from 1959 onwards) * ''Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, the Biographer of the Holy Prophet'' (Pakistan Historical Society) (1967) * ''Muhammad Rasulullah: A Concise Survey of the Life and Work of the Founder of Islam'' (1979) * ''Islam: A General Picture'' (1980) * ''Islam, Philosophy and Science: Four Public Lectures Organized By Unesco June 1980'' (editor) (1981) * ''Why Fast?: Spiritual & Temporal Study of Fast in Islam (Centre Culturel Islamique Paris Series)'' (1982) * ''The Prophet's Establishing a State and his Succession'' (1988) * ''The Prophet of Islam: Prophet of Migration'' (1989) * ''Kurʼân-ı Kerîm tarihi: Bir deneme (Ilmi eserler)'' (1991) * ''Battlefields of the Prophet Muhammad'' (1992) * ''Emergence of Islam'' (1993) * ''Islam in a Nutshell'' (1996) * ''The Life and Work of the Prophet of Islam'' (1998)

References

External links

hamidullah.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamidullah, Muhammad 1908 births 2002 deaths Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam International law scholars Philosophers of law Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz University of Bonn alumni University of Paris alumni University of Bonn faculty Translators of the Quran into French People from Hyderabad State Sunni fiqh scholars Osmania University faculty Osmania University alumni 20th-century Indian translators Pakistani emigrants to France Pakistani people of Hyderabadi descent Scholars from Hyderabad, India Jamia Nizamia alumni

Early life and background

Career

Literary works

See also

References

External links