Kulliyat-E-Maktubat-E Sir Syed

Kulliyat-Emaktubat-E Sir Syed: The Complete Letters Of Sir Syed – 6 Volumes

Book Details:

Kulliyāt-e Maktubāt-e Sir Syed (Complete collection of letters written & received by Sir Syed) is a compilation of six volumes (4 in Urdu and 2 in English) and captures 1774 letters of Sir Syed. As the language used by Sir Syed was primarily Urdu, 1301 letters are in Urdu, followed by 449 in English and 24 in Persian. Letters written by Sir Syed – 1191: Urdu – 919, English – 253, Persian – 19. Letters received by Sir Syed – 583: Urdu – 382, English – 196, Persian – 05. Earlier, only 649 letters were compiled by Ismail Panipati in 1959 from Lahore. Therefore, 1125 additional letters were extracted from the Aligarh Institute Gazette, Tahzib-ul Akhlaq, AIMEC reports, Scientific Society documents, and other primary sources.

The first letter is related to Ghalib and the last one is just a few days before his death, spanning 6 decades. Some of the prominent people listed in this Kulliyat are as follows : A. Colvin, Akbar Allahabadi, Badruddin Tyabji, Duke of Argyll, Garcin De Tassy, Khalifa Syed Muhammad Hasan, Khedive of Egypt, Maharaja of Alwar, Maharaja of Vizianagram, Maulana Abdul Hai Lucknawi, Maulvi Mumtaz Ali, Mohammad Husain Azad, Nawab Begum of Bhopal, Nawab Kalb Ali Khan Rampur, Principal Thomson College, Raja Jai Kishan, Raja Muhammad Amir Hasan Mahmudabad, Raja Vijay Nagar, Sir Salar Jung, Sir William Muir, Sultan of Turkey, Zaka Ullah, etc.

Dr. Ata Khursheed of Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, has accomplished this monumental task. He is also credited with compiling the complete 202 lectures of Sir Syed, which were earlier only 98. We were fortunate to celebrate the bicentenary birth celebrations of Sir Sayyid in 2017 and the centenary of AMU in 2020. But the need for such a book was of utmost importance for everyone. One must study the primary source, and letters are the best medium as they convey the essence of any individual. The lectures, letters, articles and books are inclined towards a subjective approach. This book is a must, at least for every Alig as a student of the Aligarh Movement and for all non-Alig who want to understand the Vision and Mission of Sir Sayyid. Mr. Atif Hanif is instrumental in publishing and promoting this work as a team. Aligarh Movement Zindabad!

Author Details:

DR ATA KHURSHEED was born into a Sufi family in Bihar. He is a Librarian and worked at Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library Patna from 1985 to 1992. After that, he joined Maulana Azad Library Aligarh and is now a Senior Assistant Librarian. He is in charge of the Oriental Division and the Manuscript Division. He has an MA in both Persian and Urdu and completed PhD in Urdu. His keen research interest was developed after his post-doctoral studies. He learned the research technique in literary writings, particularly compiling standard bibliographies of authentic references, 5 catalogues of manuscripts and 10 bibliographies & Indices, with 16 publications to his credit. Besides them, he has authored 23 articles in Manuscriptology, Catalogues of Manuscripts, Indices of Urdu journals, and Bibliographies on eminent personalities. Recently, he compiled the complete lectures of Sir Syed in three volumes (2022) and his complete letters in six volumes (2023).