Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi (1833–1884) was an Indian

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

, and one of the earliest teachers of Islamic Madrassa in Deoband, famously called

Darul Uloom Deoband Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic university and seminary ( darul uloom) in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, India, at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. Established in 1866 by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Sayy ...

in India. He was the first principal of Darul Uloom Deoband.

Name and lineage

His ism (

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

) was Muhammad Yaqub. His ''

nasab Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given, middle, and family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use througho ...

'' (

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

) meets Qasim ibn

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

ibn

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

Early life and education

Muhammad Yaqub was born in 1833, coinciding 13

Safar Safar (), also spelt as Safer in Turkish, is the second month of the lunar Islamic calendar. Most of the Islamic months were named according to ancient Sabean/Sabaic weather conditions; however, since the calendar is lunar, the months shift ...

1249 AH in

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 ...

, in the town of Nanauta, part of the

Saharanpur District Saharanpur district is the northernmost of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Bordering the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and close to the foothills of Shivalik range, it lies in the northern part of the Doab ...

of the modern province of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. His father, Mamluk Ali, was one of the senior Muslim scholars of India at the time, and the head of Oriental Studies at ''Madrassa Gaziuddin Khan''. Muhammad Yaqub studied most of the Islamic sciences under his father and Shah Abd al-Ghani Mujaddidi. His other teachers include Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri. Muhammad Yaqub was trained in tasawwuf under Haji Imdadullah and received ''khilafah'' (authorization) from him in the

Chishti The Chishti order () is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam named after the town of Chisht, Afghanistan where it was initiated by Abu Ishaq Shami. The order was brought to Herat and later spread across South Asia by Mu'in al-Din Chishti in the city ...

Naqshbandi Naqshbandi (Persian: نقشبندیه) is a major Sufi order within Sunni Islam, named after its 14th-century founder, Baha' al-Din Naqshband. Practitioners, known as Naqshbandis, trace their spiritual lineage (silsila) directly to the Prophet ...

Qadiri The Qadiriyya () or the Qadiri order () is a Sunni Sufi order (''Tariqa'') founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani (1077–1166, also transliterated ''Jilani''), who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order, with its many sub-orders, is wides ...

, and Suhrawardi orders.

Career

In 1852, Muhammad Yaqub was appointed as a teacher in Government College Ajmer. At the recommendation of the College principal, he was offered the post of Deputy collector, which he rejected. He was transferred to Banaras, and later promoted to the post of Deputy Inspector, Saharanpur. In 1866, Muhammad Yaqub was appointed as the principal of

. Concerning his appointment in the Deoband seminary, Muhammad Miyan Deobandi writes that, "Seeing the increase in students day to day, it became a concern to get good teachers and thus Maulana Muhammad Yaqub was called to be the principal who was then teaching either in Ajmer or somewhere else." Students of Muhammad Yaqub include most of the second-generation Islamic scholars such as

Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia University and launched the Silk Letter Movement for ...

, Aziz-ur-Rahman Usmani,

Sayyid Mumtaz Ali Sayyid Mumtaz Ali Deobandi (27 September 1860 – 15 June 1935) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar and an advocate of women rights in the late 19th century. He was an alumnus of Darul Uloom Deoband. His book ''Huquq-e-Niswan'' and the journal ...

Hafiz Muhammad Ahmad Hafiz Muhammad Ahmad (also known as Muhammad Ahmad Nanautawi) (1862–1928) was an Indian Muslim scholar, who served as the vice chancellor of the Darul Uloom Deoband for thirty five years. He was the Grand Mufti of the Hyderabad State from 1922 ...

Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri (; December 185213 October 1927) was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Deobandi movement. He authored '' Badhl Al-Majhud Fi Hall Abi Dawud'', an 18-volume commentary on the hadith collection ''Sunan Abi Dawud''. He was ...

and

Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakimul Ummat and Mujaddidul Millat; 19 August 1863 – 20 July 1943) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and a revivor of classical Sufi in the Indian subcontinent during the Briti ...

. Yaqub authored ''Sawaneh Umri Hazrat Maulana Qasim Nanutawi'', a biography of Qasim Nanautawi which was translated into Arabic by

Arif Jameel Mubarakpuri Muhammad Arif Jameel Mubarakpuri (born 10 March 1971), is an Indian Islamic scholar and Arabic and Urdu language writer. He is a professor of Arabic language and literature at Darul Uloom Deoband. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of Arabic mont ...

as ''Al-Imām Muhammad Qasim An-Nanawtawi Kama Ra’aituhu''.

Death and legacy

Muhammad Yaqub Nanautavi died of cholera at age 51 in 1884 and was buried in his hometown, Nanauta.

Family life

Muhammad Yaqub was maternal uncle of the Hadith scholar

References

{{Authority control 1833 births 1884 deaths Deobandis Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 19th-century Muslim scholars of Islam People from British India Principals of Darul Uloom Deoband People from Nanauta Sheikh al-Hadith of Darul Uloom Deoband Founders of Darul Uloom Deoband