Muslim Sahitya-Samaj was an influential literary and cultural organization. It was based in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

History

Muslim Sahitya-Samaj (

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 ...

Literary society A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newslet ...

) was founded on 19 January 1926 in a meeting at Muslim Hall Union office. The meeting was presided by

Muhammad Shahidullah Muhammad Shahidullah (; 10 July 1885 – 13 July 1969) was a Bengali people, Bengali linguist, philologist, educationist, and writer. He played vital role in Language movement of 1952 he was the first to establish logic about Why Bengali should ...

, professor at the Department of

Bengali 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 ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Dhaka University The University of Dhaka (), also known as Dhaka University (DU), is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1921, it is the oldest active university in the country. The University of Dhaka was founded in 1921 ...

. Professor Abul Husain, Department of Economics and Commerce of

, A F M Abdul Huq, a student of Dhaka University residing in Muslim Hall, and Abdul Quadir, a student of

Dhaka Collegiate School Dhaka Collegiate School is a secondary school in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is one of the oldest schools in Bangladesh. The students of collegiate school are called Collegiatian. History The school was established in Dhaka on 21 June 1835 as Dhaka E ...

were charged with running the organisation and were the first executive committee of the society. Professors Kazi Abdul Wadud and Anwarul Qadir. The Muslim Sahitya-Samaj operated for a total of 11 years before becoming dormant. Professor Charu Chandra Bandopaddhay presided over the first session of the organization. In 1938, there were attempts to revive the organization but they did not succeed and after 1939 all activities ceased. They supported Freedom of intellect and encourage

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

traditions. It aimed to promote education among

Bengali Muslims Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work.are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest et ...

. Despite having Muslim in its name, it was a secular organization that had non-Muslim speakers. The organization was by choice

non-political Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an Bias, unbias ...

. It was an organization of

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

and

teachers A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

Publication

Shikha was the official journal of the Muslim Sahitya-Samaj. The first issue of the journal was published in April 1927. It had 144 pages and was priced half a

rupee Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currency, currencies of Indian rupee, India, Mauritian rupee, Mauritius, Nepalese rupee, Nepal, Pakistani rupee, Pakistan, Seychellois rupee, Seychelles, and Sri Lankan rupee, Sri Lanka, and of former cu ...

. The Editor of the magazine was Professor Abul Hussain of the economics department of ''

''. The journal was published from the Salimullah Muslim Hall by Abdul Quadir on behalf of the Muslim Sahitya-Samaj and printed by Munshi Ahmed Ali from the Islamia Press at Sat Rauza (

). Total five issues of the Shikha were published. The second and third issues were edited by

Qazi Motahar Hossain Qazi Motahar Hossain (30 July 1897 – 9 October 1981) was a Bangladeshi writer, scientist, statistician, chess player, and journalist. Hossain was a pioneer educationalist of Bangladesh. He did original research in statistics and pioneered ...

and were published in October 1928 and 1929. The fourth and fifth issues were edited by Muhammad Abdur Rashid and

Abul Fazl Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), also known as Abul Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami, was an Indian writer, historian, and politician who served as the grand vizier of the Mughal Empire from his appointment ...

and published in 1930 and 1931. The last four issues were published by Syed Imamul Hossain from the Modern Library of Nawabpur (Dhaka). These were priced half a rupee, one rupee, half a rupee and three quarters of a rupee. Every issue of the journal used to contain reports on the organisation's periodic and annual conferences as well as the essays read at those conferences. It contained reports on the year-long activities of the Muslim Sahitya-Samaj. Official slogan of the magazine was "'Where knowledge is limited, intellect is inert, freedom is impossible". This slogan was regarded by the journal's writers as their motto or guiding principle.

References

Indic literature societies Bengali literary institutions Organisations based in Dhaka 1926 establishments in India Islam in Dhaka {{Bangladesh-org-stub