Masud Husain Khan

Masud Husain Khan (28 January 1919 – 16 October 2010) was an Indian linguist, the first Professor Emeritus in Social Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University and the fifth Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi.

On 16 October 2010 Masud Husain Khan died in Aligarh from Parkinson's disease.

Family

Masud Husain Khan was born in Qaimganj district Farrukhabad, into a Pashtun family of the Afridi and Kheshgi tribe of Uttar Pradesh. His family is sometimes referred to as the ''Family of Vice-Chancellors'', having provided Vice-Chancellors to four different universities across the Indian subcontinent.

Masud Husain's father Muzaffar Husain Khan (1893–1921) completed his education from Islamia High School Etawah and Mohammadan Anglo Oriental (M.A.O.) College, Aligarh. He started his judicial career in Hyderabad but died of tuberculosis at the early age of twenty-eight. Masud Husain was just two years old when he lost his father. Muzaffar Husain Khan was eldest brother of-

* Zakir Husain, the third President of India. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest national honour, in 1963. Zakir Husain also served as Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.
* Yousuf Husain Khan, professor at Osmania University Hyderabad and Urdu's critic who later became Pro-vice-chancellor at Aligarh Muslim University. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1978.
* Mahmud Husain Khan, who was appointed both Minister of State for Defense and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations in the cabinet of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, before becoming State Minister for State and Frontier Regions a year later. In 1951, he was appointed Minister for Kashmir Affairs in Liaquat's cabinet, and then served as Minister for Education from 1952 to 1953. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University from 1960 to 1963, and of Karachi University from 1971 until his death in 1975. He was the father of Anwar Hussain, former Managing Director of Pakistan Television Corporation. Mahmud Husain's daughter, Saqiba, is married to General Rahimuddin Khan, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Pakistan Army and the longest-serving Governor of Balochistan. Rahimuddin Khan later served as Governor of Sindh in 1988. Saqiba and Rahimuddin Khan's son-in-law is Ijaz-ul-Haq, son of General Zia-ul-Haq, the sixth President of Pakistan and the Second Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, representing the constituency of Kaimganj. He was also a state minister in the Sampurnanand Government. His grandson Shakeel Ahmad married the widow of Shabbir Sharif, the most decorated officer of Pakistan Army and elder brother of Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan General Raheel Sharif.
* Quddus Alam Khan, Zamindar of Kaimganj and also Masud Husain's father-in-law. Quddus Alam's wife and Masud Husain's mother-in-law, Badrud-duja Begum, was the daughter of Nawab Muhammad Yusuf Khan Sherwani of Datawali and Budhansi. Badrud-duja Begum's paternal grandfather, Nawab Faiz Ahmed Khan Sherwani of Datawali, gave a financial assistance of Rs. 50,000/- to Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), for which Nawab Faiz Ahmed Khan was granted a salute of 8-guns. Masud Husain was also related through marriage to Haroon Khan Sherwani, Rahil Begum Sherwani, Nawab Sir Muhammad Muzammilullah Khan of Bhikampur, Zahida Khatun Sherwani, and the Nawabs of Malerkotla, Kurwai and Dujana
* Gulam Rabbani Taban, a poet and member of the Progressive Writers' Association. He received the Sahitya Akademi award in 1979. He was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. He is the grandfather of filmmakers Anusha Rizvi and Syed Ahmad Afzal.
* Khurshed Alam Khan. He was Governor of Karnataka from 1991 to 1999 and Governor of Goa from 1989 to 1991. He has also officiated as Governor of Kerala. He was the Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia from 1985 to 1990, and from 1995 to 2001. He married Sayeeda Begum, daughter of Dr. Zakir Husain. Salman Khurshid, former Indian Minister of External Affairs, is their son.

Education

After finishing primary education from Jamia Millia Islamia, Husain studied in Dhaka for a while. He completed his BA from Zakir Husain College, Delhi University and MA from Aligarh Muslim University. He did his PhD under the guidance of Professor Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui and wrote his magnum opus ''Muqaddama-e-tareekh-e-zaban-e-Urdu'' which was later published as a book and became a landmark work. He also studied Hindi and Sanskrit literature and was familiar with Bengali, Persian and French too. Later on, in 1953 he finished his DLitt from University of Paris in Linguistics.

Career

Husain served as Visiting Professor at Department of South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
In 1962, he became chairman at Osmania University's Urdu department where he served till 1968 when he was made the head of the linguistics department at Aligarh Muslim University. He was Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu Hind's acting general secretary during 1969–1970.
From 3 November 1973 to 15 August 1978 he served Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia as Vice-Chancellor.
After his retirement, Husain was appointed as Visiting Professor at Iqbal Institute, Kashmir University, Srinagar and used to teach research methodology. Masud Husain was also the Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Urdu Aligarh until the mid-1990s. Jamia Urdu, Aligarh was established as a distance education institution in 1939 for imparting Urdu education. He was the President of All India Muslim Educational Conference until his death in 2010. He was a member of the Executive Board of Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library.

Works

Hussein's works include:
* Husain's magnum opus, ''Muqaddama-e-tareekh-e-zaban-e-Urdu'', describes in detail the history of Urdu