Syed Ehtisham Ahmed Nadvi (also known as S. E. A. Nadvi) is a scholar of the

Arabic language 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 ...

and

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

, specialising in Arabic

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

. He is the winner of the 1992 President's Award for Literature, and the author of books on Arabic, Urdu and

Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...

, including course books taught in Indian universities.

Early life and education

Syed Ehtisham Ahmed Nadvi was born in the village of Makhdoompur in Amethi,

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, into a well known family of

Indian Muslim Islam is India's Religion in India, second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, or approximately 172.2 million people, identifying as adherents of Islam in a 2011 census. India also has the Islam by country, third-larg ...

intelligentsia belonging to the Syed-Qidwai clan. Other members of this clan include Ali Mian. Nadvi graduated from the Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama in

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

. He obtained his master's degree in Arabic from the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

, and subsequently his PhD from the same institution. Nadvi was the Head of the Arabic Department at the

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a State ownership, state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, and retired in 2000. During his tenure, he supervised the PhD theses of some notable scholars such as Bahauddeen Muhammed Jamaluddeen Nadwi. A ''festschrift'' in his honour appeared in 2003.

References

Living people Indian Islamists Year of birth missing (living people) Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama alumni Deobandis {{India-academic-bio-stub