NAJEEB Ashraf Nadvi was a research scholar, critic, translator and pedagogue, whose discoveries and editing of rare texts and critical works remain mostly unheard of in Pakistan — in India a couple of books have been written on him to acknowledge his contribution.
One of the most remarkable works by Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi was the editing of Aurangzeb Alamgir’s letters and a scholarly foreword to it. Benefitting from the works and rare collection of renowned historian Jadunath Sarkar as well as many works in Persian, Urdu, Hindi and English, Najeeb Nadvi’s work Muqaddama Ruq’aat-i-Alamgeeri earned him name and fame. He planned to publish Almageer’s letters in five volumes but could not finish it and only one volume appeared.
The discovery of Lughaat-i-Gujari and its editing is another remarkable feat that Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi is known for. Lughaat-i-Gujari’, penned in Gujarat (now an Indian state) by an unknown author in 1115 Hijri (1703-04 AD), is one of the earliest Urdu dictionaries. It is one of the works called ‘Nisaab nama’, or a versified bilingual dictionary composed as part of syllabi to teach Arabic and Persian through Urdu to the students of elementary classes. It also gives clues to the early history of Urdu in Gujarat.
As mentioned by Abdur Razzaq Qureshi, Najeeb Ashraf translated some books from English into Urdu, including History of Arabic Literature, Political System of British India and a couple of works by Gandhi.
Nadvi sahib’s research on the early history of Urdu in Gujarat is a milestone as it brought under light some new facts on the history of the Urdu language. Konkan is another area that was mostly ignored when it came to Urdu literature and Najeeb Nadvi’s work, Urdu’s creative literary work in Konkan, is truly remarkable.
Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi was a critic too and his critical acumen is most manifest in his criticism on the works of Hafiz Mahmood Sherani and Niaz Fatehpuri. In his critical evaluation of Niaz Fatehpuri’s book Tareekh-ud-Daulatain, Najeeb Ashraf revealed it was a kind of plagiarism as what Niaz sahib had presented as his research work was in fact a translation of Tareekh At-Tamaddun-ul-Islami, a work by Egypt’s Christian scholar Jurji Zaydan in five volumes. Nadvi sahib not only exposed Niaz and his incorrect translations but also pointed out Zaydan’s errors. When published in Ma’arif, the article sent tremors across the subcontinent’s literary world.
Najeeb sahib’s critical review of Hafiz Mahmood Sherani’s epoch-making book Punjab Mein Urdu was also considered an important contribution as his misgivings about the way Sherani had drawn some incorrect conclusions as to where, when and why was Urdu born, raise many questions. Many of his articles appeared in Nawa-i-Adab, an Urdu literary magazine published by Bombay’s Anjuman-i-Islam Urdu Research Institute, a research body where he served as director from 1956 till his death.
Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi was one of those few scholars who were equally at home both in eastern and western sources of knowledge. Having received early education at Nadvat-ul-Ulema, Lucknow, Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi had personally experienced the aura that Shibli Naumani and Syed Sulaiman Nadvi had created at Nadva.
Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi was born on Nov 1, 1900, at Armori, Chaanda district of Maharashtra, but his ancestral hometown was Desna, in Nalanda district of Bihar. Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi was taught Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Marathi at home. He was sent to Nadvat-ul-Ulema in 1909 and remained there till 1913, but could not finish his education there, though ‘Nadvi’ became a part of his name. In 1913, the students of Nadva went on strike, Shibli Naumani and Sulaiman Nadvi left Nadva and Najeeb Ashraf’s father called him back to Patna. Here he was admitted to an English-medium school.
According to Shamim Tariq, under the influence of nationalist movements like the Khilafat Movement and Tark-i-Mavaalaat, young Najeeb quit college in the early 1920s. His brother was at Calcutta (now Kolkata) who called him over and Najeeb Ashraf reached Calcutta. Here the famous historian Jadunath Sarkar, who had taught Najeeb Ashraf at Patna College, was vice chancellor of Calcutta University. Najeeb did his BA from Calcutta University in 1924.
Najeeb Ashraf had begun writing at an early age and it was one of the reasons why Syed Sulaiman Nadvi asked him to join Dar-ul-Musannifeen, Azamgarh, a research and educational institute established by Shibli Naumani. Till 1930, he remained associated with it. From 1931 to 1956, Najeeb Ashraf taught at Bombay’s famous Ismail Yousuf College and helped create a literary and cultural atmosphere there.
Najeeb Ashraf Nadvi, the unsung scholar of Urdu, died in Bombay (now Mumbai) on September 5, 1968.
Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2021
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