The Right Hon. Syed Ameer Ali

Abstract

The Right Hon. Syed Ameer AH was born in Oudh (District LTnao) in 1849 but the greater part of his Indian career was spent in Bengal. He graduated in the Calcutta University in 1867 and showed an early inclination to literature. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 187.3, and held various legal positions, becoming a Judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1890. He retired from the High Court in 1904, earning warm encomiums from Lord Curzon at a farewell banquet. Meanwhile he had served on the Bengal Legislative Council and the Viceroy's Legislative Council from ?878 to 1885. After retirement from the High Court he took up his residence in England, and was appointed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on which he served till his death on 3id August, 1928. During his stay in England he was an honoured member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Elected a member in 1901, he was a member of the Council of the Society from 1907 to 1911, a vice-president from 1911 to 1915, and again a member of council from 1915 to 1918. Syed Ameer Ali's work may be considered under three heads, as a Muslim Jurist, as an interpreter of modernism in Islam both to the West and to his own co-religionists, and as a worker in the cause of Islam in the larger movements, political, social, and international. In all these capacities he had an effective instrument in a charming literary style, which he used with grace and distinction. Almost immediately on graduation Syed Ameer AH collaborated with Maulvi 'Ubaidullah in the translation of what was then considered a remarkable work by an Oriental scholar, Maulvi Syed Kara mat Ali, Mutawalli of the Ilugli Imambara. The original book was in Persian (Maakbaz i TTl?m), and was meant to turn the attention of Judian Muslims to modern science. The argument was that all