Islamic History

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328)

Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran in northern Syria in 1263 C.E. and died at the age of sixty-five in Damascus in 1328. A prolific writer on all subjects related to the Qur_an, hadith, sunna, theology, law, and mysticism, he was a dynamic and controversial figure during his lifetime, and he remains to this day an influential figure in Islamic thought and practice. A loyal associate of the Hanbali theological and legal school of thought, he put his beliefs into practice as a religious, political, and social reformer. Responding to various crises of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in the Middle East, such as the Mongol invasions, the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate, and the eventual rise of the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and Syria, Ibn Taymiyya sought the revival of Islamic society based on a model of what he believed was the pristine community of Muslims at the time of the Prophet and his companions at Medina. But his efforts to revive Islamic society were not only aimed at political and social reform, he sought also to achieve the revival of the inner or spiritual components of Islam.
In fact, Ibn Taymiyyah believed the inner reform had to occur first before any outward reform would be possible. This perspective on his part brought Ibn Taymiyyah into conflict with many speculativetheologians (mutakallimun), philosophers, and Sufi mystics, whom Ibn Taymiyya accused of deviating from the pure Islam of Muhammad and the Qur_an by adopting non-Islamic systems of belief, in particular the logic and philosophy of the ancient Greeks. Ibn Taymiyya’s life can be divided into three distinct periods, each representing a significant phase in his development as a thinker and reformer. The first phase goes from his birth until 1304, during which time Ibn Taymiyyah received his training as a scholar and was involved in defending Damascus from incursions by the Mongol Ilkhans of Persia. The second period lasts from 1304 until 1312, during which time he was in Egypt. This period is marked by his growing controversywith Sufi mysticism as well as his involvement with the political turmoil related to Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. al- Qalawun’s consolidation of power. Ibn Taymiyya spent many years on trial and in prison during this time, stemming from his religious pronouncements and his support for al-Nasir Muhammad. The third phase begins with his return to Damascus in 1312 and lasts until his death in 1328. This is the period of the maturing of his ideas and the time of his most prolific and significant writings. Although these years were relatively free of controversy, toward the end of his life he came into conflict with religious and state authorities over doctrinal and legal issues. Ibn Taymiyya died in prison in Damascus shortly after being denied contact with all but his closest family members and being forbidden to write any more letters, essays, or legal rulings.
The core of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought revolves around a set of principles from which he develops an elaborate worldview. These principles can be summarized as follows: an absolutedistinction between the creator and the creation, revelation as a complete and self-sufficient system, and a necessity to constantly return to and understand the Qur_an and the sunna in light of the traditional teachings of the earliest generations of Muslims (al-salaf al-salih).
Ibn Taymiyya has been described as a “dogmatic historian,” for he developed a theology based on the concept of a necessarily preserved true religion. This religion as embodied in the Qur_an and the sunna of prophet Muhammad was transmitted intact by the salaf al-salih. The canonical collections of authenticated hadiths contain this transmitted wisdom, and thus, for Ibn Taymiyya, forms the basis for all interpretation and practice in Islam. His methodological approach is premised on the correct use of five sources for gaining knowledge of the beliefs and practices that are pleasing to Allah. These are (1) the Qur_an, (2) the sunna of the Prophet, (3) the statements and actions of the companions of the Prophet (al-sahaba), (4) the opinions of the followers (altabi _un) of the companions, and (5) the Arabic language, which for him is the only divinely ordained religious language.
These sources make up what Ibn Taymiyya believes is a comprehensive notion of revelation. Any methodology or belief system outside revelation is not deemed to be an acceptable means of attaining truth. In relation to jurisprudence and the schools of law (madhahib), Ibn Taymiyya maintains that theoretically the four imams of the recognized Sunni schools of law agreed on the principles (usul) of Islam, but pragmatically they differed concerning particular rulings (furu_). Thus he upholds the legitimacy of the four schools yet argues that scholars must continue exerting independent judgment (ijtihad) in an effort to come ever closer to the theoretically pure Islam. He argued that blind following (taqlid) of one scholar or school of thought was tolerated for the layperson, but scholars were under an obligation to seek out and follow the truth even if it is found to lie outside their particular affiliation to a school of thought. This stance brought him into conflicts with other jurists, even with his fellow Hanbalis.
But more than his political and legal opinions, Ibn Taymiyya’s theology remains the most salient feature of his religious thought. Devoted to a defense of a monotheism that does not compromise the nature and attributes of Allah as derived from the Qur_an and the sunna, he set himself against the great traditions of speculative theology (kalam), philosophy, and mysticism that had evolved in Islamic civilization.
Following closely the creeds established by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and other hadith scholars of the ninth century, Ibn Taymiyya developed a very sophisticated and subtle theology that he promoted quite vigorously. His theology begins with the notion of God as the eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent creator who brought the universe into existence out of nothingness (ex nihilo) as a willful act. He rejects any form of pantheistic thought that compromises this belief. Thus he devotes much of his writings to refutations of mystical philosophies, such as that of Ibn al-_Arabi (d. 1242). However, he does not want to compromise the idea of a personal God with whom a believer can establish an intimate spiritual relation. Therefore, he also rejects the sterile descriptions of Allah put forth by philosophers and speculative theologians, who stripped him of many of his essential names and attributes. His main targets of refutation are the Mu_tazilites, the Ash_arites, andphilosophers such as Ibn Sina (d. 1043). These theological debates often brought the charge of anthropomorphism against Ibn Taymiyya because he insisted on affirming attributes to Allah such as that he has a hand and a face, that he loves and hates, and that he ascends and descends while remainingrisen above the throne over the heavens. Ibn Taymiyya’sdefense is that these descriptions appear in the Qur_an and authentic hadiths and have been maintained by the companions of the Prophet. He also argues that these attributes cannot be comprehended by human intellect but must be accepted as a matter of faith without questioning (bi la kayf) the manner in which these attributes exist in Allah.

IBN MAJA (824–887)

Ibn Majah, Abu _Abdallah Muhammad b. Yazid, was from Qazwin in Persia and lived from circa 824 until 887 C.E. He is the compiler of the last of the “Six Books” of authoritative (sahih) Sunni hadith collections. Ibn Maja’s Kitab al- Sunan contains 4,341 reports that he collected during Ibn Majah’s peregrinations through the Hejaz, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, conducted in search of hadiths. About three thousand of these hadiths are contained in the other five standard collections.

Initially Ibn Majah’s collection was criticized for containing a number of weak (sc. defective) (da_if) and discredited reports, which prevented it from being accepted by the large majority of scholars as a reliable compilation. Although Abu Da_ud and al Tirmidhi, editors of two other authoritative hadith compilations, also recorded weak hadiths, they identified them as such, whereas Ibn Maja did not. For these reasons, some of the traditionists preferred the Sunan work of al-Darimi (d. 869), another well-known hadith scholar, over that of Ibn Maja. However, by about the early twelfth century C.E., Ibn Majah’s standing as a traditionist (muhaddith) had improved considerably and his Sunan ultimately became recognized as one of the Six Books, although it is still regarded as the weakest one.

IBN SINA (980–1037)
Ibn Sina (Avicenna), was a poet, music theorist, astronomer, and politician, but he was best known as a philosopher and asa medical doctor. From his autobiography we learn that he was born in an Isma_ili family in Afshana, in the Persian region of Bukhara.
By the age of ten, he had completed the study of language and literature and memorized the Qur_an. He studied Greek logic and mathematics under his father’s friend al-Natili, a teacher and a prominent advocate of Isma_ili Shi_ism. However, he soon felt that his education and skills exceeded his teacher’s and he no longer needed him. By the age of sixteen, he had covered the various sciences and became a teacher and practitionerof medicine. Because of his fame as a doctor, he was called upon to treat the prince Nuh Ibn Mansur, who then gave him access to the princely library, which was rich in rare books. By eighteen, he was confident that he had mastered the sciences except for metaphysics. He read Aristotle’s metaphysics many times without understanding it until he came across al-Farabi’s interpretation of it. He spent his last years writing and practicing medicine in Isfahan, but owing to constant travel, insufficient sleep, and hard work, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Hamadhan.

Ibn Sina wrote over 250 works, including books, odes, and essays. The most important of his philosophical books are Healing and Remarks and Admonitions. Each has four parts,the first three being logic, physics, and metaphysics. The first work closes with a part on mathematics, the second with one on Sufism. His most important medical work is the Canon of Medicine, which served as a significant reference in Europe from the eleventh to the seventeenth century.
Ibn Sina’s philosophy centers primarily on the divine and human natures and their relationship to each other and the rest of the universe. The human soul individuates its body and gives it motion and life. Thus the body is dependent for its survival on its soul, but the soul’s existence is independent of the body. In life the soul uses its body for gaining sensory knowledge. This knowledge, when abstracted, becomes pure universals that can be imprinted on the theoretical intellect, the highest and noblest part of the rational soul—the latter being the highest part of the human soul and the only part that survives death. Such imprinting actualizes the theoretical intellect, rendering it eternal, because these universals are eternal and because known and the knower are one. With eternity, the soul attains its highest pleasure or happiness. Ibn Sina was an intellectual giant whose philosophy combined Greek and Islamic thought but was unique in many respects. His ideas left a strong impact on future Eastern and Western thought.

IBN RUSHD (Averroes)(1126–1198)
Ibn Rushd, whose Latin name was Averroes, was the most outstanding philosopher in the Islamic world working within the Peripatetic (Greek) tradition. He was particularly interested in the work of Aristotle and wrote a large number of commentaries of differing length on his works. Ibn Rushd was not only a philosopher but also a judge, legal thinker, physician, and politician, like so many of the other philosophers in the Islamic world. His work is marked by its commitment to what he took to be pure Aristotelianism and his relative antipathy to Neoplatonism.
He defended the acceptability of philosophy in the Islamic world, arguing that it does not contradict religion but complements it. Ibn Rushd held that philosophy represents the system of demonstrative or rational argumentation, while religion presents the conclusions of philosophy to a wider audience in a form that enables the latter to understand how to act.

This thesis came to be characterized as the “double-truth” thesis, which held that philosophy and religion are both true despite contradicting each other. Nevertheless, Ibn Rushd did not hold such a thesis, whatever views were attributed to him outside of the Islamic world after his death. During his lifetime, Ibn Rushd suffered at the hands of rulers who were occasionally unsympathetic to philosophy, and after his death his style of philosophy soon fell out of fashion in the Arabicspeaking Islamic world. It is the commentaries that led to his continuing influence in Jewish and Christian Europe long after he was forgotten in the Islamic world.

Hazart Imam Hassan Bin Ali

Hasan ibn  Ali ibn Abi Talib was the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the second Shi_ite imam. Born in Medina in 624, three years after the hijra, he died at age forty-six in Medina in 670. In Shi_ite parables he and his brother Husayn, the third imam, are figured as two alternative political strategies against injustice in the world and in politics. Hasan embodies the path of patience, which allows the enemy slowly to demonstrate unworthiness and lose any claim to legitimacy.

Husayn embodies the path of armed revolt. After the death of his father, _Ali bin Talib, the first imam, Mu_awiya became caliph. According to the Shi_ite account, Hasan should have succeeded his father. Hasan was an important rawi (reciter) and interpreter of the hadith and sunna (sayings and practices) of the Prophet and his Companions, reflecting the role of the imams in having access also to the divine meanings of revelation. But Hasan was too weak politically to challenge Mu_awiya for the leadership of the community. After Mu_awiya attempted to have him assasinated, and many of his followers abandoned him, Hasan came to an understanding with Mu_awiya, wherein Hasan was sent to live in Medina, while Mu_awiya promised that leadership would revert to the family of the Prophet upon his death. But Mu_awiya broke his promise by appointing his son Yazid to succeed him, and convinced Ja_da, Hasan’s wife, to poison the imam. In addition to paying Ja_da, Mu_awiyya also promised to marry her to his son and heir, Yazid. The giving of poisoned water is the inverse of the denial of water to Husayn on the battlefield of Karbala, where the third imam was martyred by the forces of Yazid. Imam Husayn’s revolt subsequently disgraced Yazid, and created in him the archetypal figure of evil in Shi_ite stories of injustice.

This parable structure is also encoded in a hadith quoted by Mohammad Baqer Majlesi, the preeminent mujtahed of the seventeenth century. On Id al-Fitr, according to the hadith, Gabriel descended with a gift of new white clothes for each of the Prophet’s grandsons. The Prophet said that the grandsons were used to colored clothes. So Gabriel asked each boy what color he wanted. Hasan chose green, Husayn red. While the clothes were being dyed, Gabriel wept. He explained: Hasan’s choice of green meant that he would be martyred by poisoning, and his body would turn green, and Husayn’s choice of red meant he would be martyred and his blood would turn the ground red.
Hasan is buried in Medina with a green banner on his mausoleum. Husayn is buried in Karbala with a red banner, the sign of a martyr whose revenge is yet to come. Sunni accounts of early Islamic history deny that Hasan was poisoned, claiming he died of consumption. Sunni accounts also stress the temporary shift of power to Damascus under Mu_awiya and Yazid, but since revenues came mainly from Iraq, power eventually shifted to Baghdad. For Shi_a, Hasan’s story is a precursor to Husayn’s martyrdom,
which is the overarching cosmic and paradigmatic story of existential tragedy, of injustice in this world triumphing often by force over justice, and of the duty of a true Muslim to sacrifice himself, to witness for truth and justice.

Imam AL Ghazali – Alchemist of Happiness

Al Ghazali (C. 1059–1111) :Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Ghazali (or al- Ghazzali) (1058/9–1111) was born some seven years before the Battle of Hastings, the Norman conquest that transformed England. Imam Al Ghazali also known as alchemist of happiness in west.As an intellectual and thinker, Ghazali’s legacy is not only rich, but his imprint on the Muslim tradition is both diverse and complex. For this reason the enigma of his legacy makes him both a highly esteemed as well as a controversial figure. Generations of scholars have debated Ghazali’s role, studying the range of texts he had written in order to get a better picture of the man and his oeuvre. For some people Ghazali is the great “Defender of Islam” (Hujjat al-Islam, hujjat literally meaning “proof”).
Others blame him for damaging the rational edifice of Islamic thought in his sharp critique of Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi. However, Ghazali’s ideas can best be described as a work in progress and not easily abridged. Therefore, reducing his work to such polarities is to grossly oversimplify the achievements of a very complex life and mind. Ghazali’s childhood was marked by a frugal and impoverished existence, partly caused by the untimely death of his father. His early years were spent in his birthplace in Tus, near what is today the city of Mashhad in modern Iran. After his elementary education with his tutor Ahmad al-Radhkani, he traveled to the city of Jurjan near the Caspian Sea for higher studies with a leading scholar, Isma_il b Mis_ada al- Isma_ili (d. 1084). We learn of the apocryphal story of his encounter with brigands during his return journey from Jurjan. After the brigands had robbed all the travelers in the caravan, Ghazali pleaded with the brigands’ leader to return only his precious dissertation (ta_liqa), offering him the rest of his possessions in return. The brigand leader ridiculed Ghazali’s claim to knowledge and mocked him by showing that a thief could so easily take it away. Struck by this insight, Ghazali later commented: “He [the leader of the brigands] was an oracle (mustantaq) whom God made to speak, in order that He could guide me through him.” After that episode Ghazali committed all his notes to memory.

But the major transformation in Ghazali’s intellectual life took place when he attended the Nizamiyya College in Nishapur. There he impressed the leading scholar of the day, Abu ’l-Ma_ali al-Juwayni (d. 1085), renowned for his expertise in dialectical theology (_ilm al-kalam) and Shafi_i law. Juwayni’s influence on Ghazali effectively brought him into a full engagement with the rational sciences, especially law, theology, logic, and later philosophy. Thus in Nishapur one begins to see the first signs of Ghazali’s extraordinary strength in law and dialectical theology. In law he followed the Shafi_i school while also studying Ash_ari theology without being a slavish adherent to this orientation. These intellectual gifts would serve him well in his rise to intellectual celebrity. At Nishapur, Ghazali learned Islamic mysticism (tasawwuf) from Abu _Ali al-Farmadhi (d. 1084/5). It is not clear what Ghazali did for roughly seven years after completing his formal studies in Nishapur. Most historians believe that he remained in Nishapur but regularly joined the retinue of scholars cultivated by the indomitable Seljuk wazir (Ar. wazir) Nizam al-Mulk. In 1091 Nizam al-Mulk appointed Ghazali professor of Shafi_i law at the Nizamiyya College in Baghdad. It is in Baghdad that Ghazali’s intellectual reputation culminated in the honorific “Defender of Islam.” It also marked one of the most productive periods in his life. He wrote several books on logic and law. It was also during this period that he wrote his famous refutation of the controversial doctrinal beliefs held by Muslim philosophers about the eternity of the world, their rejection of corporeal resurrection and that God only knew universals, The incoherence of the philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa), followed by a vitriolic exposure of the doctrines of the Isma_ili Shi_a called The obscenities of the esoterists (Fada_ih al-batiniyya).

But his meteoric rise came to an abrupt and dramatic end when he experienced a debilitating spiritual crisis, which he described in some detail in his spiritual testimony, Deliverance from error (al-Munqidh min al-dalal). He decided to abandon his public life of teaching and embarked on a life of contemplative reflection and asceticism. Explanations abound for this dramatic turn in Ghazali’s life. Some argue that he suffered intellectual self-doubt in his engagement with philosophy. Others link his anxieties to the series of Ismail_ili assassinations targeting political and religious figures, which gave Ghazali cause to fear for his own life. There is also a view that he found his political alliances with the Seljuk rulers and his ties to the Abbasid caliphal palace to be a source of moral suffocation. Perhaps cumulatively all these pressures had a deleterious impact on his mind and soul.
Under the pretext of making the pilgrimage to Mecca, Ghazali left his family in the province of Khurasan and sought the anonymity of Jerusalem and Damascus, where he spent time meditating at the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad mosque. After an absence of nearly five years (1095–1099) Ghazali returned to his native Tus. During this period, as a novice on the mystical path, he engaged in reflection and disciplinary practices of the self as taught by master mystics such as Junayd of Baghdad, Harith al-Muhasibi, and others. It is also in this period of his life that he undertook the writing of his magnum opus for which he is best known in the world of scholarship, The revivification of the sciences of religion (Ihya ulum al-din). This is now a classic in Muslim religious writing and is widely used to this day. In it Ghazali explores the ethical purposes of religious practices but more importantly provides a road map as to how this can lead to a transformation of the self. As a body of writing, Revivification represents Ghazali’s personal journey, in which he writes his ailing soul to health. Given his broad intellectual repertoire, Ghazali was able to explore a variety of themes in a complex and convincing manner, drawing on a variety of sources and ideas that he combines into an almost seamless narrative. The Revivification consists of four books, each addressing an overall theme: starting with rituals (_ibadat), customs and practices (_adat), practices that lead to peril (muhlikat), and salvific practices (munjiyat).

Jamal al-Din Afghani, one of the most influential Muslim reformers of the nineteenth century, was most likely born in Asadabad, Iran, into a Shiite family. Throughout his life, however, he emphasized his Afghan ancestry, perhaps to broaden his appeal to Sunni Muslims. Little concrete information is available about his early life, but he probably received a traditional Islamic education in Iran and Iraq.

During a visit to India around 1855, he was exposed to Western scientific and political thought for the first time. His stay in India coincided with the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (the Indian revolt against the East India Company), and his attitudes toward European and particularly British imperialism may have begun to form then. Around 1866, Afghani began his peripatetic career as a Muslim intellectual and political activist by accepting a post in the government of Afghanistan.

Over the next thirty years he traveled to or resided in Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, London, Tehran, and St. Petersburg, frequently being forced to relocate because of his reformist views and political activities. Afghani is commonly viewed as the nineteenth century’s chief ideologue of pan- Islamism. But his ideas, many of them expressed through the journal al-_Urwa al-wuthqa (The firmest grip; a reference to Qur_an 2:256, 31:22), which he copublished with Muhammad _Abduh, never amounted to a coherent ideology. More than anything else, Afghani was driven by opposition to European imperialism in Muslim countries, which he argued could be fought only by a rejuvenation of Islamic culture.

Ataturk Mustafa Kemal Pasha – Great Leader of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) was born in 1881 into a family of modest means in Salonica, then an Ottoman port city in what is today a city in Greece. He died in Istanbul on 10 November 1938. His father, _Ali Riza Bey, was a progressive person and worked at the customs house. His mother, Zubeyde Hanim, was a devout Muslim who instilled Islamic values in young Mustafa. Only seven years old at the death of his father, he was raised by his mother and completed his early education at local schools. In 1893 he began his studies at a military secondary school where his teacher gave him his second name, Kemal (perfection), owing to Mustafa’s outstanding performance in mathematics. Two years later he attended the military academy in Manastir and later entered the War Academy. He graduated in 1905 with the rank of staff captain, and in 1906 was assigned to the Fifth Army in Damascus. In 1907 his duties took him to Macedonia where he established connections with the Young Turks. He participated in the defense of Tripolitania at Tobruk and Derna against the Italian invasion (1911–1912), was appointed as a militaryattaché to Sophia, and returned to Istanbul to distinguish himself at the Dardanelles in 1915. During World War I, he served on various fronts such as the Caucasus, Palestine, and Aleppo.

Rejecting the Mudros Armistice (30 October 1918), which the Allied powers had imposed on the Ottomans, Mustafa Kemal moved on to Anatolia in May 1919 to begin his nationalist struggle against the invasion and partition of the country. That same year, at the congresses of Erzurum (23 July) and Sivas (4 September), he defined the nationalist demands and goals for independence. It was during this period that he molded various regional paramilitary defense associations into a nationalist army. On 23 April 1920, he established the Great National Assembly in Ankara, claiming exclusive legitimacy in representing the Turkish interests. He was unanimously elected the first president of the assembly.
During the War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal served as the commander in chief of the armed forces. The Armistice of Mudanya (11 October 1922) sealed the victory of the Turkish forces. Within days, the assembly abolished the sultanate (1 November 1922), though leaving the caliphate in the Ottoman House. The Lausanne Conference (November 1922–July 1923) recognized Turkey’s full independence and defined its borders. On 23 October 1923, the Second Grand National Assembly, controlled by Halk
Firkasi (People’s Party, later Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi— Republican People’s Party) proclaimed the republic and elected Mustafa Kemal its first president. Thus a six hundredyear- old political tradition was brushed aside, and sovereignty placed directly in the hands of the people.
The early years of the republic witnessed fundamental political and social changes. Determined to modernize and secularize his country, and intent upon breaking away from the past, the assembly, under Mustafa Kemal’s guidance, passed a number of laws that brought revolutionary changes. In 1924, the same year that the caliphate was abolished, the Ministry of Seriat (Islamic law) was dismantled and replaced by the Ministry of Justice. In 1925, the Gregorian Calendar replaced the Islamic one, and the fez, which had come to symbolize Islamic headgear, was banned. The wearing of the veil by women was strongly discouraged. The dervish (Sufi)orders were dissolved. The adoption of Swiss Civil Code in 1926 completely negated the Islamic laws of marriage, divorce,
and inheritance that had been in practice for centuries. The replacement of the Arabic script with the Latin script in 1928 closed the door to the Ottoman past, and compelled the Turks to look to the future. The passage, in 1934, of a law requiring Turks to use family names further underscored this trend; indeed, Mustafa Kemal’s own surname of Ataturk (Father of Turks) was bestowed upon him by the National Assembly. In the same year, women were given the right to vote. In foreign policy, Turkey followed Mustafa Kemal’s dictum: “Peace at Home, Peace in the World.” Mustafa Kemal’s reforms were revolutionary. The policies of his Republican People’s Party were expressed in six principles: republicanism, nationalism, populism, etatism, secularism, and revolutionism. Within these principles Turkey was transformed from a traditional society into a modern nation state. Secularism received particular attention. The Kemalist regime relentlessly pursued secularist policies and dismantled the Islamic institutions. In view of the founder of the new Turkish Republic, centuries-old Islamic institutions and laws could not sufficiently serve the needs of a modern society. Mustafa Kemal believed that Islam would be best served if it were confined to belief and worship rather than brought into the affairs of the state. In his address to the nation on the tenth anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 1933, he promised further progress and asked Turks to “judge time not according to the lax mentality of past centuries, but in terms of the concepts of speed and movement of our century.”

The Egyptian leader who dominated two decades of Arab history, Jamal _Abd al-Nasser was born 15 January 1918, the son of a postal official. Raised in Alexandria and Cairo, he entered the military academy and was commissioned in 1938. Thereafter, he joined a secret Muslim Brotherhood cell, where he met fellow dissidents with whom he later founded the Free Officers. On 23 July 1952 the Free Officers seized power; within a year they outlawed political parties and established a republic. In 1954, they dismissed the figurehead president Muhammad Najib (Naguib) and repressed all opposition.
Elected president in June 1956, Nasser ruled until his death. Under his leadership Egypt remained a one-party state. The ruling party changed names several times; the Arab Socialist Union, formed in 1962, survived until 1978 when Nasser’s successor, Anwar al-Sadat, abolished it. A charismatic leader, Nasser drew regional acclaim and international notoriety for his championship of pan-Arabism and his leadership role in the Non-Aligned Movement. His popularity soared during the 1956 Suez Crisis, sparked by  Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. The tripartite British-French-Israeli invasion failed to topple his regime and solidified his reputation. Frustrated with the pace of social and economic reform, in the early 1960s Nasser promoted a series of socialist decrees nationalizing key sectors of industry, agriculture, finance, and the arts. Egypt’s relations with the Soviet bloc improved, but Nasser never turned entirely away from the West. In regional affairs the years after Suez were marked by a series of setbacks. The United Arab Republic (1958–1961) ended with Syria’s cessation, and the Yemeni civil war (1962–1967) entangled Egyptian troops in a quagmire.
Many contend that Nasser never recovered from the disastrous defeat by Israel in June 1967. Yet he changed the face of Egypt, erasing class privileges, narrowing social gaps, and ushering in an era of optimism. If Egyptians fault his failure to democratize and debate the wisdom of Arab socialism or the state’s secular orientation, many still recall his populist intentions. When he died suddenly of a heart attack on 28 September 1970, millions accompanied his coffin to the grave. TQDTSAS9NFNB

Sir Syed Ahamd Khan Biography (1817–1898)

Sayyid Ahmad Khan was an educational and political leader of Muslims who were living under British rule in India. He developed concepts of religious modernism and community identity that mark the transition from Mogul India to the rise of representative government and the quest for self determination. Born and educated in Delhi in the surviving remnant of the Mogul regime, Sayyid Ahmad embarked on a career in the British subordinate judicial service, the lower level law courts where Indian judges presided and cases were conducted in Indian languages, and was posted in a series of north Indian towns and cities. During these years he published historical and religious texts and was one of the pioneers of the printing of Urdu prose. He remained loyal to the British during the 1857 revolt, and worked to reconcile Indian, Muslim, and British institutions and ideologies.

In 1864, he founded the Scientific Society in Ghazipur (shifted the following year to Aligarh), which was devoted to translating practical and scientific works into Urdu. In 1869, he traveled to England to write a defense of the life of the Prophet and to examine British educational institutions.
While in England, he conceived the idea of founding a residential college primarily for Muslims and devoted the rest of his life to the cause of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, which was founded in 1875. During this period, he became a prolific writer on religious, social, and political issues. In 1887, he announced his opposition to the Indian National Congress on the grounds that representative government was not in the best interests of Muslims. Knighted by the British in 1888, he left a legacy of political separatism that future generations transformed into a movement for the creation of Pakistan as a separate state for South Asian Muslims.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Pictures, Pics, Photos, Images, Wallpapers