Imdad Ali Imam Ali Kazi ( sd, علامه آء آء قاضي) (18 April 1886 – 13 April 1968), also known as Imdad Ali Kazi, the son of Kazi Imam Ali Ansari, was a scholar, philosopher,

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

, and

educationist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...

. He is considered to be a founding father of the

University of Sindh The University of Sindh ( ur, ; sd, سنڌ يونيورسٽي; informally known as Sindh University) is a public research university in Pakistan located in the city of Jamshoro. It is one of the oldest universities in Pakistan and was certifi ...

at its present location at

Jamshoro Jamshoro ( sd, ڄام شورو, ur, ) is a city and the capital of Jamshoro District, located in Sindh, Pakistan. It is located on the right bank of the Indus River, approximately northwest of Hyderabad and northeast from the provincial capi ...

.Bab-i-Allama I.I. Kazi
Dawn (newspaper), Published 26 December 2008, Retrieved 8 March 2019 He published works of Sindhi

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

and history. Along with his wife Elsa, he wrote a book on comparative religion, ''The Adventures of the Brown Girl in her Search for God'', which was published by Arthur H Stockwell Ltd.,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in 1933. They also worked on a translation of the verses of

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai ( sd, شاھ عبداللطيف ڀٽائي, ur, ; 1689/1690 – 21 December 1752), commonly known by the honorifics ''Lakhino Latif'', ''Latif Ghot'', ''Bhittai'', and ''Bhit Jo Shah'', was a Sindhi Sufi mystic, an ...

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...

Education and early life

Imdad Ali Kazi was the second son of the second wife of Kazi Imam Ali Ansari, the District Magistrate of

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, and was born on 18 April 1886, at

. His family was originally from

Paat Paat ( sd, پاٹ, Pāṭ), also known as Pat or Goth Pat, is a small town in the Dadu District of Sindh, Pakistan. It is located at 20°28'0N 48°68'0E with an altitude of . As of 2017, it has a population of 9,507, in 1,707 households. It is th ...

Dadu District Dadu District ( sd, ضلعو دادو), ( ur, ) is a district of Sindh Province, Pakistan. With headquarters the city of Dadu, the district was created in 1931 by merging Kotri and Mahal Kohistan (later Jamshoro) tehsils from Karachi District a ...

. He studied the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical 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 in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Sindhi language Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a Scheduled languages of India ...

and

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ur, , link=no, ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, In ...

from a private tutor. I.I. Kazi went to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1907 for higher education, where he studied Economics at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. In 1910, he married a German woman, Elsa, who was thereafter called

Elsa Kazi Elsa Kazi (1884–1967), commonly known as "Mother Elsa", particularly in the Sindh province of Pakistan was a German writer of one-act plays, short stories, novels and history, and a poet. She was a composer and a musician of considerable achie ...

. Elsa Kazi was also well-versed in literature. In 1911, Kazi received the degree of Bar-at-Law, after which he returned home to Hyderabad with his wife. Imdad Ali Kazi studied Arabic in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

in 1932. Next year in 1933, he further studied Arabic at the

London School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

. While he was studying in England, he was a contemporary of

Allama Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

and

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

Career

The British offered the young

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

the post of Civil Judge of

Tando Muhammad Khan Tando Muhammad Khan ( sd, ٽنڊو محمد خان; ur, ) is a city and headquarter of the Tando Muhammad Khan District located in Sindh, Pakistan. Is is named after Mir Muhammad Khan Talpur Shahwani. It is the 95th largest city of Pakistan, ...

. He also served as the district and sessions judge of

Khairpur Khairpur( Sindhi and ur, ) is a city and the capital of the Khairpur District, in Pakistan's Sindh province. History The Talpur dynasty was established in 1783 by Mir Fateh Ali Khan, who declared himself the first ''Rais'', or ruler of Sindh, ...

during the British rule. Allama I.I. Kazi served as Vice-Chancellor of University of Sindh from 1951 to 1958.

Death and legacy

I.I. Kazi died on 13 April 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan at age 81. He was buried at the campus of University of Sindh at

. Several books and articles have been written on the life of Kazi and tributes paid to him annually on the anniversary of his death Tributes paid to noted Sindh intellectual Allama Kazi
Dawn (newspaper), Published 17 April 2006, Retrieved 8 March 2019
Dawn (newspaper), Published 16 April 2003, Retrieved 8 March 2019 Many well-known scholars like Maulana

Abul Kalam Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Husseini, Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Indian independence movement, independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the ...

, Maulana

Ubaidullah Sindhi Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (10 March 1872 – 21 August 1944) was a political activist of the Indian independence movement and one of its vigorous leaders. According to ''Dawn'', Karachi, Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi struggled for the independence ...

and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

were deeply impressed by his writings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazi, Imdad Ali Imam Ali 1886 births 1968 deaths Sindhi people Alumni of the London School of Economics Pakistani Sindhologists 20th-century Pakistani historians Pakistani judges Vice-Chancellors of the University of Sindh Scholars from Sindh