Mohammad Ajmal Khan (11 February 1868 – 29 December 1927), better known as Hakim Ajmal Khan, was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, India, and one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University. He also founded another institution, Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College, better known as

Tibbia College The Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College, also popularly known as Tibbia College, is an institution under the Government of Delhi, located at Karol Bagh in New Delhi, India. The institution which offers education and training in Ayurvedic and Unan ...

, situated in Karol Bagh,

. He was the only muslim to chair a session of the Hindu Mahasabha. He became the university's first chancellor in 1920 and remained in office until his death in 1927.Profile of Hakim Ajmal Khan
Jamia Millia Islamia website, Retrieved 22 August 2019

Biography

Born on 11 February 1868 (17 Shawwal 1284), Khan descended from a line of physicians who had come to India during the reign of

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Babar. His family were all Unani doctors ( hakims who had practised this ancient form of medicine since their arrival in the country. They were then known as the Rais of Delhi. His grandfather, Hakim Sharif Khan, was a physician to

Shah Alam Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor ...

and had built the ''Sharif Manzil'', a hospital-cum-college teaching Unani medicine. Hakim Ajmal Khan learnt the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

by heart and as a child studied traditional Islamic knowledge including Arabic and Persian, before turning his energy to the study of medicine under the guidance of his senior relatives, all of whom were well-known physicians. To promote the practice of Tibb-i-Unani or Unani medicine, his grandfather had set up the ''Sharif Manzil'' hospital-cum-college known throughout the subcontinent as one of the best philanthropic Unani hospitals where treatment for poor patients was free. He completed his Unani studies under Hakeem Abdul Jameel of ''Siddiqui Dawakhana'', Delhi. On qualifying in 1892, Hakim Ajmal Khan became chief physician to the Nawab of Rampur. Hailed as "Massiha-e-Hind" (Healer of India) and "a king without a crown". Hakim Ajmal Khan, like his father, was reputed to effect miraculous cures and to have possessed a "magical" medicine chest, the secrets of which were known to him alone. Such was his medical acumen that it is said that he could diagnose any illness by just looking at a person's face. Hakim Ajmal Khan charged Rs. 1000 per day for an out-of-town visit but if the patient came to Delhi, he was treated free, regardless of his position in society. Khan proved to be the most outstanding and multifaceted personality of his era with matchless contributions to the causes of Indian independence, national integration and communal harmony. He took great interest in the expansion and development of the native system of Unani medicine and to that end built three important institutions, the Central College in Delhi, the Hindustani Dawakhana and the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College better known as

, Delhi, which expanded research and practice in the field and saved the Unani System of Medicine from extinction in India. His untiring efforts in this field infused a new force and life into an otherwise decaying Unani medical system under

British rule The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...

. Khan proposed the absorption of Western concepts within the Unani system, a view diametrically opposite to that adopted by physicians of the Lucknow school who wanted to maintain the system's purity. Hakim Ajmal Khan also recognised the talents of chemist Dr.

Salimuzzaman Siddiqui Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, ( ur, ; 19 October 1897 – 14 April 1994) was a Pakistani Muhajir organic chemist specialising in natural products, and a professor of chemistry at the University of Karachi. Siddiqui studied philosophy at Aligarh Mus ...

, whose subsequent research into important medicinal plants used in the field gave

Unani Unani or Yunani medicine (Urdu: ''tibb yūnānī'') is Perso-Arabic traditional medicine as practiced in Muslim culture in South Asia and modern day Central Asia. Unani medicine is pseudoscientific. The Indian Medical Association describes U ...

medicine a new direction. As one of its founders, Khan was elected first chancellor of the

Jamia Milia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...

University on 22 November 1920, holding the position until his death in 1927. During this period he oversaw the University's move to Delhi from

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the cap ...

and helped it to overcome various crises, including financial ones, when he carried out extensive fund raising and often bailed it out using his own money.

Politics

Hakim Ajmal Khan changed from medicine to politics after he started writing for the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

in 1906 and presented him with a memorandum written by the delegation. At the end of December 1906, he actively participated at the

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

founding of the All India Muslim League on 30 December 1906. At a time when many Muslim leaders faced arrest, Khan approached Mahatma Gandhi for help in 1917, thereafter uniting with him and other Muslim leaders such as Maulana Azad, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana

Shaukat Ali Shaukat Ali, also known as Shaukat Ali Khan, (3 May 1944 – 2 April 2021) was a Pakistani folk singer. Early life and career Born on 3 May 1944, into a family of artists in Malakwal, a town in District Gujrat (now falls in new District Mand ...

in the well-known Khilafat movement. Khan was also the sole person elected to the Presidency of the Indian National Congress, the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...

and the All India Khilafat Committee.

Death and legacy

Before he died of heart problems on 29 December 1927, Hakim Ajmal Khan had renounced his government title, and many of his Indian followers awarded him the title of ''Masih-ul-Mulk'' (Healer of the Nation). He was succeeded to the position of Jamia Millia Islamia Chancellor by Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. Ajmaline, a class Ia

antiarrhythmic agent Antiarrhythmic agents, also known as cardiac dysrhythmia medications, are a group of pharmaceuticals that are used to suppress abnormally fast rhythms ( tachycardias), such as atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular ta ...

and Ajmalan a parent hydride, are named after him. After the partition of India, Khan's grandson Hakim Muhammad Nabi Khan moved to Pakistan. Hakim Nabi had learnt Tibb (how to practice medicine) from his grandfather and opened 'Dawakhana Hakim Ajmal Khan' in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

which has branches throughout

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. The motto of the Ajmal Khan family is ''Azal-ul-Allah-Khudatulmal'', which means that the best way to keep oneself busy is by serving humanity.

Quotes

* "The spirit of non-cooperation pervades throughout the country and there is no true Indian heart even in the remotest corner of this great country which is not filled with the spirit of cheerful suffering and sacrifice to attain Swaraj and see the Punjab and the Khilafat wrongs redressed." – From the Presidential Address,

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

, 1921 Session, Ahmedabad.

References

External links

Dawakhana Hakim Ajmal Khan'', Lahore website

Dawakhana Hakim Ajmal Khan Online Store'', International website & Buy Medicines Online

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Hakim Ajmal 1863 births 1927 deaths Medical doctors from Delhi 19th-century Indian Muslims Indian independence activists from Delhi Jamia Millia Islamia 19th-century Indian educational theorists Presidents of the Indian National Congress 19th-century Indian medical doctors All India Muslim League members Leaders of the Pakistan Movement Unani practitioners South Asian traditional medicine Founders of Indian schools and colleges 20th-century Indian medical doctors 20th-century Indian educational theorists Scholars from Delhi Indian National Congress politicians from Delhi