Biography of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan endures despite criticism
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More than 125 years after its publication, Hayaat-i-Javed, the biography of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan written by Altaf Husain Hali, remains a significant work of Urdu literature.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, born in 1817 and died in 1898, is still remembered in South Asia. While the biography received initial praise, it also drew criticism, notably from Shibli No’mani, who described it as a book of virtues and reasoned praise. Dr.
Shams Badauni, an Indian scholar, addressed a lack of objective analysis of Hayaat-i-Javed by compiling rare and contemporaneous reviews in his book, Mutal’a-i Hayaat-i-Javed Ke Aik Sau Pachchees Saal (125 Years of the Study of Hayaat-i-Javed). Badauni’s work goes beyond simple collection, demonstrating principles of textual criticism and including extensive research in its prefaces. Badauni argues that Hayaat-i-Javed offers insight into the intellectual history of 19th-century Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and the evolution of Muslim thought.
He notes that G.F.I. Graham wrote Sir Syed’s first biography in English in 1885, and Qazi Sirajuddin Ahmed completed an Urdu biography in 1892 but it was never published. Early reviews of Hayaat-i-Javed were largely positive, though Abul Kalam Azad expressed some reservations, and the book was satirized by the humour magazine Oudh Punch. The book was first published in April 1901 and has been reprinted by publishers in both Delhi and Lahore.
