Ismail Hossain Siraji

Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji (1880–1931) was a Bengali author and poet from Sirajganj in present-day Bangladesh, considered one of the key authors of the Bengali Muslim reawakening, encouraging education and glorifying the Islamic heritage. ¹ He contributed greatly to introducing the Khilafat Movement in Bengal and provided medical supplies to the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. ¹ His first poetry book, Anal-Prabaha, was banned by the government and he was subsequently imprisoned as the first South Asian poet to allegedly call for independence against the British Raj. ¹

He was born on 13 July 1880, according to the English article, to a Bengali Muslim family of Syed extraction in Sirajganj, Pabna District; Banglapedia gives only the year 1880 and the district, from which he took the suffix Shiraji he gave himself. ^{1 2} His ancestor Syed Ali Azam had migrated from Shiraz in Iran to Bengal and received honour in the Mughal court, and many of his descendants were practitioners of Unani medicine. ¹ His father, Moulvi Syed Abdul Karim Khandakar (1856–1924), practised Unani medicine and was not financially well off, and the English article adds that he was a police sub-inspector; his mother, Nur Jahan Khanom, was of Pashtun ancestry. ^{2 1}

As a young boy he learnt Arabic and Persian in the local primary school and then studied at the Jnanadayini Minor English School; his family could not afford college, but he studied Sanskrit grammar, literature and dictionaries at home, and read Shibli Nomani and Muhammad Iqbal, by whom he was greatly influenced. ^{1 2}

He earned his living by writing and making public speeches and acquired a great reputation as an orator; reawakening the backward Bengal Muslim society was the main theme of his writing and speeches. ² He was an advocate of Muslim interests but was not a communalist: Hindu–Muslim amity based on equal sharing of resources was his belief. ^{2 1} At nineteen he published Anal-Prabaha, his first book of poetry — the English article's career text dates it 1899 and its works list 1900, both recorded here; a second edition in 1908 brought charges of rebellion, the book was banned, and he was imprisoned in March 1910, the government issuing Section 144 against him 82 times in his lifetime according to the English article. ¹

In 1912 he joined a delegation providing medical aid to the Ottoman forces during the Balkan Wars; returning to Bengal the following year, he became one of the founders of the Anjuman-i-Ulama-i-Bangala, which later became the Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangala branch of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1921. ¹ In 1930 he was arrested for taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement. ¹ He was active in many parties and organisations, such as the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, the Anjuman-i-Ulama-i-Bangla, the Jamiat-e-Ulama-i-Hind, the Swarajya Party and the Krishak Samiti, and he mobilised the peasants of Sirajganj against the zamindars and the moneylenders. ^{2 1}

He wrote for contemporary journals such as Al-Eslam, Islam Pracharak, Prabasi, Pracharak, Kohinoor, Soltan, Mohammadi, Saogat, Nabajug and Nabanur; most of his writings tended to glorify Islamic traditions, culture and heritage, and he advocated modern education and true Islamic learning. ^{2 1}

His poems include Anal Prabaha, Akangkha (1906), Uchchhas (1907), Udbodhan (1907), Naba Uddipana (1907), Spain Bijoy Kabya (1914), Sangit Sanjibani (1916) and Premanjali (1916), with Mahashikhkha Mahakabya published posthumously in two volumes (1969 and 1971); his novels are Ray Nandini (1915), Tara Bai (1916), Feroza Begum (1918) and Nooruddin (1919), with Ami Je Tomar (1917) added by the English article; his travelogue is Turoshko Bhromon (1913), and his essays include Stri Shikkha (1907), on women's education, and Sajati Prem (1916). ^{2 1}

This section sets out positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

Like Shibli Nomani and Mohammad Iqbal, Siraji felt that it was necessary to harmonise religious and secular thought to awaken the Indian Muslim community and to arrest deteriorating Hindu–Muslim relations. ² His views were unpopular at first, and during his speeches objects were sometimes thrown at him, according to the English article. ¹ Neither source names a school for him, so the faith field in his data record remains unknown. ^{1 2}

Siraji died on 17 July 1931 in the Bengal Presidency, sixteen years before independence. ¹ On 5 March 1948 Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy said that he had single-handedly set out on the hardest path of not allowing a dormant nation to be tarnished and of awakening the sleeping nation to its past glory, and that when they were young his Anal-Prabaha had electrified their bloodstream. ¹ He left behind a wife, five sons and two daughters, and influenced the next generation of Bengali Muslim writers such as Muhammad Enamul Haq and Mohammad Najibar Rahman. ¹

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