Munshi Munshi is a Persian word, originally used for a contractor, writer, or secretary, and later used in the Mughal Empire and India for native language teachers, teachers of various subjects, especially administrative principles, religious texts, ...

Muhammad Sadeq Ali ( bn, মোহাম্মদ সাদেক আলী, Nagri: ), born as Sri Gaur Kishore Sen ( bn, শ্রী গৌর কিশোর সেন), was a prominent

Dobhashi Dobhashi ( bn, দোভাষী, Dobhāṣī, bilingual) is a neologism used to refer to a historical Register (sociolinguistics), register of the Bengali language which borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It became ...

writer, poet and district judge from 19th century

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. He is considered to be the most well-known writer to have used the

Sylheti Nagri Sylheti Nagri or Sylheti Nagari ( syl, , ISO: , ), known in classical manuscripts as Sylhet Nagri (, ''Sileṭ Nagri'') amongst many other names (see below), was an Indic script used to write the Sylheti language and Eastern Bengali language ...

script and this is due to his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, Halat-un-Nabi (Condition of

the Prophet A prophet is a person who is believed to speak through divine inspiration. Prophet or The Prophet may also refer to: People People referred to as "The Prophet" as a title * The Prophet (musician) (born 1968), Dutch gabber and hardstyle DJ ...

), which gained immense popularity in the

Sylhet region The 1947 Sylhet referendum was held in the Sylhet District of the Assam Province of British India to decide whether the district would remain in Undivided Assam and therefore within the post-independence Dominion of India, or leave Assam for E ...

and would later be transcribed in the

Bengali script Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Early life

Shree Gour Kishore Sen was born around 1800. In August 1818, he was taught the basics of Islam by Maulvi Muhammad Yusuf. Sen grew an interest in the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

and

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision of th ...

s, and so he studied under Mir Munshi Abul Fazl, a detective of the Hingazia thana. He formally accepted Islam and changed his name to Sadeq Ali. He also mentions that he was a follower of the

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named ...

madhhab A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE ...

Career as a writer

Sadeq Ali decided to take a reformist stance against the common Sylheti Muslim literature which had used religious syncretism with

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global po ...

, in particular

Vaishnavism Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

, and Sufi

Baul The Baul ( bn, বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism, Vaishnavism and Tantra from Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls c ...

elements. Sadeq Ali then published his ''Mahabbatnama'' based on the story of

Yusuf and Zulaikha "Yusuf and Zulaikha" (the English transliteration of both names varies greatly) refers to a medieval Islamic version of the story of the prophet Yusuf and Potiphar's wife which has been for centuries in the Muslim world, and is found in many langu ...

taking inspiration from the earlier version by Shah Gharibullah of West Bengal. He also wrote ''Hashor Michhil'' (Procession of Hashr), which also remains in circulation, continuing to be sold in shops in both Sylheti Nagri and Bengali scripts. as well as ''Radd al-Hind'' (Response to the Hindus), ''Kashf al-Bid'ah'' (Unveiling of Innovation), ''Pandenama'', ''Dafeh al-Hujat'', ''Hushiarnama'' and ''Rahasatul Islam''. Sadeq Ali later composed another

puthi A Puthi ( bn, পুঁথি, Nagari: , Perso-Arab: پوتھی), is a book or writing of poetic fairy tales and religious stories of Bengal and present-day East India, which were read by a senior "educated" person while others would listen. Th ...

about the

prophetic biography Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya (), commonly shortened to Sīrah and translated as prophetic biography, are the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad from which, in addition to the Quran and Hadiths, most historical information about his life and th ...

called Halat-un-Nabi in 1855, focusing more on scripture rather than more popular folk beliefs. It became a household item in every

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the se ...

homestead in Greater Sylhet and Cachar, making it the most popular and widely printed book in the

script. Sadeq Ali wrote ''Radd-i-Kufr'' in 1874.

Death and legacy

Long after Sadeq Ali's death in 1862, the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...

took place in 1971. A fire took place in Bandar Bazar, Sylhet town destroying the ''Islamia Press'', which was the largest

printing press. However, Bengali script versions of the Halat-un-Nabi puthi continued to be in production and circulation. The puthi was included in the ''Nagri Grantha Sambhar'', a selection of Nagri ''puthi''s published by Utsho Prokashon in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Sadeq 1798 births People from Kulaura Upazila 19th-century Indian Muslims Bengali-language poets 19th-century Indian male writers Bengali male poets 19th-century Bengali poets Muslim poets 1862 deaths

Early life

Career as a writer

Death and legacy

See also

References