Historiography is one of the fields in which Muslim scholars have proved their mettle. Asma-ur-rijaal (the names of persons) is not only the list of persons who reported the traditions (Hadith) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) but also a way of determining the authenticity of Hadith. Asma-ur-rijaal is a biographical corpus based on thorough research.

Aside from the historical accounts, chronogram was another way of recording dates practised by poets. It was an interesting and literary method of recording an event through poetry. Though it is still practised by some poets, it is not as popular as it used to be.

In a chronogram, a couplet or a line of poetry or a phrase in a verse represents a year as every letter is assigned a numerical value and adding up those figures produces a year. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of chronograms have been composed and a large body of literature is available on chronograms in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. It is a fact that chronograms composed centuries ago have sometimes proven to be the only authentic source of an event.

Yet another way of discovering and recording the historical events is epigraphy, or the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions. The study of epitaphs, and other inscriptions on tombs, too, is a branch of historiography to which scholars have devoted much time. A large number of books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu exist that record the inscriptions on tombstones of persons belonging to a particular city, group or organisation.

Historical necrology is a list of deaths with dates and, generally, brief accounts of the lives of those who have departed. In Urdu, about a dozen such books have been published in recent years that record the inscriptions on tombstones of prominent personalities buried in the graveyards of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and elsewhere. These books also give brief life-sketches of the persons buried there. In some such books, even the location of the grave and pictures of tombstones are also given.

Recording obituaries has also had a long history. Known as vafiyaat (obituaries), the oldest book in Arabic recording the dates of death with brief accounts of lives is said to be the one compiled by Yaqoob bin Sufyan, which dates back to the year 890 AD, writes Dr Arif Naushahi in one of his research articles.

Similarly, in Persian, Dr Naushahi says, Faseehi Khwafi’s book, recording historical events as well as obituaries, was compiled in 1375.

In Urdu, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi (1884-1953) began writing obituaries specifically under the title ‘Vafiyaat’. It began in 1914 with the death of his beloved teacher and mentor Allam Shibli Naumani. Nadvi sahib wrote about Shibli in several issues of Zamindar (Lahore) first.

Then, when Ma’arif was launched in 1916, he wrote about Shibli in it. Afterwards, every issue of Ma’arif contained an editorial note, condoling the death of scholars, writers, poets and other important personalities. Ultimately, the obituary note in Ma’arif was titled ‘Vafiyaat’. Later, a book titled Yaad-e-raftagaan appeared, consisting of the obituaries Nadvi sahib had written in Ma’arif and Zamindar between 1914 and 1953.

During the last 30 years or so, Prof Muhammad Aslam has compiled and published four books recording the deaths and brief biographies of prominent Pakistani personalities and a number of other works by some scholars, too, have appeared. However, none can rival the authenticity and the scope of the gigantic work done by Dr Muhammad Muneer Ahmed Sulech.

His book Vafiyaat-e-naamvaraan-e-Pakistan (Urdu Science Board, Lahore, 2006) recorded the dates and brief biographies of over 8,000 prominent Pakistanis who departed this life between Aug 14, 1947 and Dec 31, 2004. It included personalities from every walk of life.

But later, he compiled an updated and specialised version of his early work. Titled Vafiyaat-e-ahl-e-qalam (Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad, 2008), it recorded the obituaries of scholars, writers, poets, journalists and intellectuals only. Dr Sulech updated it up to Aug 14, 2007 and the number of entries crossed the 4,000 mark, almost double the number of writers mentioned in the earlier version. But the problem is that the correct date of death and biographical details of many of those who left for their heavenly abode before 1947 are sometimes not easily available.

So in a way, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi was the pioneer of obituary writing in Urdu journalism. He began writing obituary articles in Zamindar in 1914. After Shibli Naumani’s death, Nadvi sahib went to Azamgarh and helped establish Dar-ul-Musannifeen, a research-oriented academic body and Shibli’s long-cherished but unfulfilled dream, along with other scholars in 1915.

Shibli had envisioned a scholarly and research journal as well, which was launched in July 1915 titled Ma’arif. Edited by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Ma’arif soon became one of the most prestigious research journals and it actually helped elevate the standard of literary, historical and social research and scholarship in Urdu. Nadvi sahib’s editorial notes were scholarly pieces unto themselves and he soon began writing obituaries too.

Sometimes, these obituaries were penned by other scholars working as editorial staff. Especially after Nadvi sahib’s migration to Pakistan and his death in 1953, scholars such as Shah Moinuddin Nadvi, Abdus Salam Qidvai, Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman and Ziauddin Islahi wrote obituaries during different phases of Ma’arif.Umair-us-Siddiq Nadvi is the current editor of Ma’arif and pens the editorial notes. Ma’arif is today in its 97th year of publication. Till 2012, a total of 783 obituaries have been published in it and these are not formal obituary notes but some of them are truly research articles.

Nonetheless the problem is that the complete record of Ma’arif is hardly available in any library and the early issues are really hard to come by. Thus, it is quite heartening to note that Dr Muhammad Suhail Shafiq, assistant professor at the department of Islamic History, University of Karachi, has compiled all these obituaries after sifting through each and every issue of Ma’arif. Titled Vafiyaat-e-Ma’arif, it has just been published by Karachi’s Qirtas Publishers.

An important aspect of these obituaries is that they are not limited to Muslims alone or writers only. It includes Hindus, Christians and Jews of different nationalities and there are among them writers, politicians, scientists, Sufis, poets, orators, ulemas and others. In a way, it is an encyclopaedic account of some important historical, political and literary events.

Once Nadvi sahib had written in his editorial note that “one of the great feats achieved by the Muslim scholars is their endeavour to record and determine the correct date of death of hundreds of thousands of persons. Many books have been written on this branch of historiography. It will not be surprising if these obituary notes will one day function as valuable resource of historical necrology.”

Suhail Shafiq has made these words come true. Before the work under review, he had compiled and published the 90-year, complete, alphabetical index of articles published in Ma’arif.

The book includes some extremely rare information about several well-known and relatively unknown personalities. At the end of every obituary, the name of the writer and the issue of Ma’arif in which it appeared are mentioned.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com