Abdullah Sahib was the Governor of Gilgit Agency during

Dogra __NOTOC__ Dogras, or Dogra people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic community of Pakistan and India. Dogra, Dogras or Dogri may also refer to: * Dogra dynasty, a Hindu dynasty of Kashmir * Dogri language, a language spoken by Dogras and other ethnic commu ...

rule and was one of the earliest graduates of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College. He was the father of Pakistani writer and civil servant Qudrat Ullah Shahab.

Early life

He was born in an

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi Muslim agricultural community with a strong political identity and level of organisation. At the beginning of the last century, they numbered around 1 million and were mainly rural cultivator ...

family of Chamkor Sahib village, in Ambala district

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. At age six he was orphaned. After losing his father's property in loan servicing, he dedicated his life to education—something that could not be taken away from him—and became the first

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

student to top the

matriculation Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used no ...

examination in Ambala District, Punjab province during the early period of the Aligarh Movement, led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Abdullah Sahib soon joined Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College where he excelled in English,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Persian,

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. When he finished his BA he was one of the earliest graduates of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College.

Career

Sir Syed arranged a scholarship for Sahib to take the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

exam in England, which he refused following his mother's request. This upset Sir Syed greatly, who expelled Abdullah from Aligarh and asked him not to show his face again. Abdullah Sahib honoured his words and became a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

in remote

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

. He was soon made

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the province. He spent eighteen to twenty years there and his three sons and three daughters were born there. He was a close associate of Maharaja Pratap Singh of Kashmir, and was an expert on international relations, especially with Russia and China.

References

* '' Shahab Nama'', by Qudrat Ullah Shahab Aligarh Muslim University alumni People from Gilgit People from Punjab Province (British India) People from Gilgit-Baltistan People from Ambala district Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Pakistan-politician-stub

Early life

Career

See also

References