Sir Syed Academy to publish fully annotated editions of Hayat-e-Jawed and Mir Wilayat Husain’s autobiography
9 monographs under preparation to highlight the services of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan
Aligarh : The Sir Syed Academy at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has decided to publish the fully annotated edition of Altaf Hussain Hali’s “Hayat-e-Jawed”, with footnotes, appendices and index, the first Urdu biography of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of AMU.
The Urdu autobiography of Mir Wilayat Husain, a colleague of Sir Syed and a teacher at Madrasatul-Uloom, which is an important reference for understanding the Aligarh Movement, is also being published with footnotes and annotations.
Prof Shafey Kidwai, Director, Sir Syed Academy told that Sir Syed stayed at several places including Agra, Benares, Ghazipur, Bijnor, Meerut, Moradabad, Calcutta, Nainital, Rohtak, Allahabad and Shimla etc. during his service and as a member of the Legislative Councils of the Viceroy and the Governor of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. 9 monographs based on his activities in these cities are also under preparation. These books will be released on Sir Syed Day which falls on October 7, Prof Kidwai said.
He pointed out that Prof. Naima Khatoon, Vice Chancellor, AMU took keen interest and advised to publish revised and updated editions of important books related to Sir Syed and Aligarh Movement.
Prof Kidwai said that Hayat-e-Jawed was first published in 1901. There was a need for indexing, corrections, annotations and footnotes pertaining to the persons, books and places mentioned in the book.
Soon after the first edition of Hayat-e-Jawed, commentaries and reviews on the book were written by luminaries of the time, including Maulana Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani, Sir Abdul Qadir, Wahiduddin Saleem and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India. The revised and annotated edition will also carry these reviews.
The autobiography of Mir Wilayat Husain will also be published with notes and annotations. Dr. Asad Faisal Farooqi and Dr. Mukhtar Alam are working on these two books.
The Director, Sir Syed Academy added that Sir Syed’s stay at various cities carries value and significance for researchers of Aligarh Movement and Sir Syed studies, therefore the Academy took a decision to work on this project. As of now, nine monographs covering nine different cities are under preparation and some of these will be released on Sir Syed Day.