Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy ( bn, হাসান শহীদ সোহরাওয়ার্দী; 24 October 1890 – 3 March 1965), also known as Shahid Suhrawardy was a
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
diplomat, translator, poet and art critic.
Family and education
![Hasan-Shahid-Suhrawardy-Philip-Arnold-Heseltine-Peter-Warlock-DH-Lawrence](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Hasan-Shahid-Suhrawardy-Philip-Arnold-Heseltine-Peter-Warlock-DH-Lawrence.jpg)
Shahid Suhrawardy's father, Sir
Zahid Suhrawardy
Sir Zahid Suhrawardy (27 November 1870 – 2 January 1949), also known as Zahidur Rahman, was an Indian Bengali jurist who served a judge in the Calcutta High Court between 1921 and 1931. He was the father of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a former ...
, was a Justice of the
Calcutta High Court and his younger brother
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...
was a politician and 5th Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, his first cousin, was an intellectual and diplomat.
Shahid Suhrawardy obtained a BA (Hons) degree in English from the
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, ...
in 1909, as a student of the
Scottish Churches College. In 1913, he graduated from
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
in Law.
During his time at Oxford he became friends with
Robert Bridges
Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...
,
D. H. Lawrence and
R.C. Trevelyan.
Career
In 1914, Suhrawardy went on to Russia on a scholarship to further study the Russian language of which he already had a certain degree of mastery. He stayed on becoming Professor of English at
Moscow University and was caught in the
Russian Revolution (1917)
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
.
Suhrawardy returned to Russia to work and tour with the
Moscow Art Theatre (1926–29) and then later came to reside in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
with Professor Kalitinsky and his wife Maria Nikolaevna Germanova, a famous tragic actress of Russia in her time. In Paris, he served as the editor of the Fine Art Section of the League of Nations. He was also associated with editing of a quarterly journal on Byzantian art published from Prague.
Following his return to the sub-continent in 1932,
Osmania University
Osmania University is a collegiate university, collegiate Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farma ...
in Hyderabad commissioned him to write an introductory book on the Islamic art of different countries of the world. Later, he came to
Visva-Bharati University
Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the ...
at
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
's invitation and researched on Iranian art in
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...
as the Nizam Professor. He was an art-critic for ''
The Statesman'' and was instrumental in bringing the work of Bengali painter
Jamini Roy
Jamini Roy ( Bengali: যামিনী রায়) (11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954. He remains one of the most famous pupils of Aban ...
to the notice of the public.
Suhrawardy was a member of the
Bengal Public Service Commission during 1943–46. Following the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he went to Karachi at the end of 1948. He was active as a member of the
Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan till 1952. He served as a guest lecturer of Oriental Art for two years at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
commencing in 1952. At that time a new mansion for
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
was built in Paris and a selection committee was formed with international art-specialists to choose paintings that would decorate it in a befitting manner with artwork. Suhrawardy was a member of this committee.
Suhrawardy also worked as a diplomat. He was an ambassador of Pakistan to Spain, Morocco, Tunisia and the Vatican from 1954 onwards. He was very close to
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
and
Sudhindranath Dutta. He was proficient in many languages including Russian,
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
, Aramaic, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French.
Suhrawardy retired in 1959 and returned to Pakistan and took no active part in public life.
Suhrawardy was the Founder President of Pakistan PEN, a sister organisation of the
International Affiliation of Writers Guilds
The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds is an international trade union federation representing guilds of professional screenwriters and playwrights. Some affiliates also belong to national trade union federations.
Activities
The IAWG ...
. His anthology titled Essays in Verse of his work was published in 1962 from Dhaka. It included the poems he had written during his stay at Oxford and works that he had published in different English and American literary journals. His poems embody the spirit of the different avant-garde poetic movements of Europe. The book itself is divided into three parts: New Poems, Early Poems and An Oldman's Songs, which reflect elegant and tender thoughts.
Bibliography
Suhrawardy earned fame as Rani Bagiswari Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Calcutta during 1932–43. A compilation of his famous lectures named ''Prefaces: Lectures on Art Subjects'' was published by the university. Other works by him worth mentioning are: ''The Art of Jamini Ray''; ''Mussalman Culture'' (translated from the original Russian work by
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (russian: Васи́лий Влади́мирович Барто́льд.; 1869–1930), who published in the West under his German baptism name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the his ...
); ''A Handbook of Mussalman Art''; ''The Art of the Mussalmans in Spain''; and ''Wanderings of a Gourmet''. The first of these books a pioneering work of art-criticism written in a lucid style. He is also known to have written a book on cookery and another translating the poems of
Li Houzhu
Li Yu (; 937 – 15 August 978), before 961 known as Li Congjia (), also known as Li Houzhu (; literally "Last Ruler Li" or "Last Lord Li"), was the third rulerUnlike his father and grandfather, Li Yu never ruled as an emperor. His official titl ...
.
Death
Shahid Suhrawardy died on 5 December 1963 in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
.
Hasan -Shahid Suhrawardy
''open.ac.uk''. Retrieved 10 August 2021
References
External links
Forgotten pride of our subcontinent
Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy (1890–1965), Poet and critic
National Portrait Gallery, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suhrawardy, Hasan Shaheed
1890 births
1965 deaths
Bengali Muslims
People from Midnapore
Bengali writers
20th-century Bengali poets
Hasan Shahid
Pakistani people of Bengali descent
English-language poets from Pakistan
Scottish Church College alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Moscow State University faculty
Saint Petersburg State University faculty
Charles University faculty
University of Calcutta faculty
Columbia University faculty
Pakistani writers
Ambassadors of Pakistan to Spain
Ambassadors of Pakistan to Morocco
Ambassadors of Pakistan to Tunisia
Ambassadors of Pakistan to the Holy See
Ambassadors of Pakistan to the Soviet Union
Russian–Urdu translators
19th-century Bengalis
20th-century Bengalis
Scholars from West Bengal