Mrs Meer Hassan Ali | |
|---|---|
 Observations on the Mussulmauns of India | |
| Born | Biddy Timms late 1700s |
| Died | after 1832 |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Subject | Shia Muslim life in India |
Mrs Meer Hassan Ali born Biddy Timms (born late 1700s - after 1832) was a British author who lived in a Shia Muslim household in Lucknow in India. Her single book gave an objective insight into how Muslims live in India that corrected popular misunderstandings in Britain.
She was born Biddy Timms. She came to notice when she met and married Meer Hassan Ali who was an Indian Muslim who was employed in Addiscombe in south London as an assistant teacher. They married on 27 March 1817 at St James's Church in London and she was aged 21 or older. Her husband became disillusioned at the progress in his career in the Oriental department of East India Company's military college. He was also not well and he resigned in 1816. She and her husband moved to India in 1817. [1] She remained a Christian and she wore western clothing but she gained access to, and understanding of, the life of Shia Muslims in Lucknow as she spoke fluent Hindustani. [1]
After ten years she returned to Britain leaving her husband in India. The reason why she abandoned the marriage is unknown. It has been speculated that because they did not have any children then her husband may have taken additional wives. She would explain in her book that although Muslim men could take additional wives the reason was to obtain an heir and the additional wives were always secondary to the first wife. [2]
The book was called Observations on the Mussulmauns of India and it was published in 1832 in two volumes. [2] [3] Other British writers had written travelogues about their travels in India, but her book was not structured as an account of her life. The book was divided into sections and it covered various aspects of life in Lucknow. [2]
Her life after she returned is not well known. It is said that she worked in a British school, but there are few details, and the date or place of her death are unknown. [1] Her book is held in various collections include that of the government of India. [4]
Awadh, known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India, now constituting the northeastern portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala region of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain scriptures.
Grand Ayatollah Syed Ali Naqi Naqvi, also known as Naqqan Sahib, was a Twelver Shia Marja, poet, writer, jurist and Quranic interpreter. His writings in Urdu include Shaheed-e-Insaniyat and Tareekh-e-Islam. He also wrote Tarjuma wa Tafseer of Quran e majeed and dozens of books in Arabic.
Shuja-ud-Daula was the Subedar and Nawab of Oudh and the Vizier of Delhi from 5 October 1754 to 26 January 1775.
Rashid Jahan was an Indian writer and medical doctor known for her Urdu literature and trenchant social commentaries. She wrote short stories and plays and contributed to Angarey (1932), a collection of unconventional short stories written in collaboration with Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, and Mahmuduz Zafar.
Sayyid Dildar 'Ali, also known as Ghufran-Ma'ab Naseerabadi, was a Shia scholar of India, from the village of Nasirabad, Raibareli in Uttar Pradesh, India. His best-known work is "Imad-ul-Islâm", in Arabic, a refutation of the anti-Shia arguments used by the famous Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.
Imdadullah Muhajir Makki was an Indian Muslim Sufi scholar of the Chishti Sufi order. His disciples include Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and Ashraf Ali Thanwi. In the Indian Rebellion of 1857, he led the Muslims in Thana Bhawan to fight against British.
A ḥosayniya or hussainiya, also known as an ashurkhana, imambargah, or imambara, is a congregation hall for Twelver Shia Muslim commemoration ceremonies, especially those associated with the Mourning of Muharram. Hussainiya is a multitude hall for the mourning of Muharram and other commemoration rituals of Shia that its name gets from Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad.
Yā Hussain is an Arabic phrase used by Shia Muslims to invoke the memory or intervention of Hussain ibn Ali. It is especially used in the context of the Mourning of Muharram.
Syed Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi was a leading Islamic scholar, thinker, writer, preacher, reformer and a Muslim public intellectual of 20th century India and the author of numerous books on history, biography, contemporary Islam, and the Muslim community in India, one of the most prominent figure of Deoband School. His teachings covered the entire spectrum of the collective existence of the Muslim Indians as a living community in the national and international context. Due to his command over Arabic, in writings and speeches, he had a wide area of influence extending far beyond the Sub-continent, particularly in the Arab World. During 1950s and 1960s he stringently attacked Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism as a new jahiliyyah and promoted pan-Islamism. He began his academic career in 1934 as a teacher in Nadwatul Ulama, later in 1961; he became Chancellor of Nadwa and in 1985, he was appointed as Chairman of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad, commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ, was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, the fourth of the Rashidun Caliphs and the first Shia Imam. Fatima's sons were Hasan and Husayn, the second and third Shia Imams, respectively. Fatima has been compared to Mary, mother of Jesus, especially in Shia Islam. Muhammad is said to have regarded her as the best of women and the dearest person to him. She is often viewed as an ultimate archetype for Muslim women and an example of compassion, generosity, and enduring suffering. It is through Fatima that Muhammad's family line has survived to this date. Her name and her epithets remain popular choices for Muslim girls.
Aisha bint Abi Bakr was Islamic prophet Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers", referring to the description of Muhammad's wives in the Qur'an.
The Shi'a view of Aisha is generally unfavourable. This is primarily due to what they see as her contempt for the Ahl al-Bayt and her actions in the First Fitna of the time. Her participation in the Battle of the Camel is widely considered her most significant sign of such contempt. Shi'a also consider Aisha to be a controversial figure because of her political involvement during her lifetime. Aisha came from a political family lineage, as she was the daughter of Abu Bakr, the first caliph. Aisha also played an active role in Muhammad's political life; she was known to accompany him to wars, where she learned military skills, such as initiating pre-war negotiations between combatants, conducting battles, and ending wars.
Shia Islam was brought to the Indian subcontinent during the final years of the Rashidun Caliphate. The Indian subcontinent also served as a refuge for some Shias escaping persecution from Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubids, and Ottomans. The immigration continued throughout the second millennium until the formation of modern nation states. Shi'ism also won converts among the local population.
Syed Mohammad Waris Hasan Naqvi was a Shia muslim cleric from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Chup Tazia or silent tazia is the name given to religious processions held mostly on 8th of Rabi' al-awwal by Twelver Shia Muslims in India and Pakistan to commemorate the death of Imam Hasan al-Askari, the eleventh of the Twelver Shi'a Imams. The procession is usually regarded as the last procession of the mourning period that begins in the Islamic month of Muharram.
Grand Ayatollah Syed Mohsin Nawab Rizvi popularly known as Mohsin-ul-millat, was an Indian poet, writer, speaker and a Marja of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. He served as vice principal of Sultanul Madaris, Lucknow, and as a principal of Govt Oriental College Madarsa Alia, Rampur and Madarsa Imaniya Nasiriya, Jaunpur.
Maharaja Sir Mohammad Ali Mohammad Khan, Khan Bahadur, KCSI, KCIE was the Raja of Mahmudabad from 28 June 1903 to 23 March 1931 and a noted politician, zamindar of British India.
The Oudh State was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of the state, also written historically as Oudhe.
Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad bin al-Ḥusayn bin Mūsā al-Abrash al-Mūsawī, also known as al-Sharīf al-Raḍī was a Shia scholar and poet.
Angarey or Angaaray is a collection of nine short stories and a one act play in Urdu by Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jahan, Mahmud-uz-Zafar and Ahmed Ali first published in 1932 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the Progressive Writers' Movement in Indian literature. The release of the book was marked by protests and it was subsequently banned by the government of the United Provinces a few months after publication.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
