Sirajul Islam is Bangladeshi historian, writer, columnist, professor and academician. He is the chairman of the Board of Editors of

Banglapedia ''Banglapedia:'' ''the'' ''National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh'' is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bengali and English. The print version comprises fourteen 500-page volumes. The f ...

, the national

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

of Bangladesh, and the editor of the Journal of the

Asiatic Society of Bangladesh The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh is a non political and non profit research organisation registered under both Society Act of 1864 and NGO Bureau, Government of Bangladesh. The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh was established as the Asiatic Society ...

. He is also famous for his works on agriculture, British era land tenure and social history of Bengal.

Career

Sirajul Islam served as a professor of history department at the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

. He gave up his day job five years before the formal date of retirement, to make time for Banglapedia, in 2000. A corresponding fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

, Islam was a Senior Commonwealth Staff Fellow at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

(1978–79), a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Urbana-Champaign (1990–91), and a

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

Visiting Professor (2004).

Work

In 2002, 10 volumes of ''Banglapedia'', published by Asiatic Society, came out in his editorship. In 1991, 3 volumes of the ''History of Bangladesh'' (political, economic and socio-cultural), published by Asiatic Society, came out in his editorship. For the Society, he is working on the ''Children’s Banglapedia'' and the ''Cultural Survey of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

''. He also is in charge of the ''National Online Biography'' project of the Society and the Banglapedia Trust. During his 34-year-long stint at the University, he wrote major seminal works like ''Permanent Settlement in Bengal'' (1978), ''The Bengal Land Tenure'' (1990) and the ''Rural History of Bangladesh'' (1990). He also edited the 4 volume ''Bangladesh District Record Survey''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Islam, Sirajul Living people Academics of the University of London Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) University of Dhaka faculty Year of birth missing (living people)