Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari (1884 – 11 January 1946) ( ur, ), (10 March 1884 – 11 January 1946) was a leader and a political activist of the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

. He was a grandson of

Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi (1832 – 15 April 1880) () was an Indian Sunni Hanafi Maturidi Islamic Scholar, theologian and a Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Deobandi Movement, starting from the Darul Uloom Deoband. Name and li ...

, one of the founders of Darul Uloom Deoband in 1868.Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari on GoogleBooks website
Retrieved 28 August 2019 Along with

Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university and launched the Silk Letter Movement for t ...

, he was one of the pioneer of the Silk Letter movement against British Raj.

Early life

Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari was born into an Ansari family in Saharanpur. He grew up in the house of Abdullah Ansari. Mansoor Ansari returned to the Darul-Uloom Deoband and gradually became involved in the

Pan-Islamic movement Pan-Islamism ( ar, الوحدة الإسلامية) is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism was ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was among the leaders of the Deoband School, who, led by

, left India to seek support of the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

for a Pan-Islamic revolution in India in what came to be known as the Silk Letter Movement.

Silk letter movement

These letters were written on

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

cloth, hence the name. The hero of Silk Letter Movement, Maulana Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari, the one who went to Hejaz,

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

with Maulana

Mahmud al-Hasan Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university and launched the Silk Letter Movement for t ...

in September 1915 and worked as treasurer of the Jama’at. He returned to India in April 1916 with Ghalib Nama (Silk Letter) which he showed to freedom fighters in India and the autonomous area and then took it to

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in June 1916.Fight for Freedom on deoband.com website
Retrieved 28 August 2019

Later years

Mansoor Ansari went to

during the

First world war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to rally the

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

Amir

Habibullah Khan Habibullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: ; 3 June 1872 – 20 February 1919) was the Emir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his death in 1919. He was the eldest son of the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, whom he succeeded by right of primogeniture in October 1901 ...

. He joined the

Provisional Government of India The Provisional Government of India was a provisional government-in-exile established in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 1, 1915 by the Indian Independence Committee during World War I with support from the Central Powers. Its purpose was to enr ...

formed in Kabul in December 1915, and remained in

until the end of the war. He traveled to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and spent two years in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, passing through many other countries. He was one of the most active and prominent members of the faction of the

Indian Freedom Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

led by Muslim clergy who were chiefly from the Darul Uloom Deoband. In 1946, the

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 ...

requested him to return to India and the British Government gave him the permission to do so. But he decided to remain at Kabul, where he began a programme teaching and translating Tafsir Sheikh Mahmudul Hassan Deobandi (known as Kabuli Tafseer).

Literary works

Ansāri wrote following books: * ''Hukūmat-e-Ilāhi;;'' * ''Asās-Inqelāb'' * ''Dastoor-e-Imāmat''

Death and legacy

In 1946, Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari turned seriously ill and subsequently died on 11 January 1946 at

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

, Nangarhar Province in

and was buried there. His son

Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi Hāmid al-Ansāri Ghāzi (1909 – 16 October 1992) was an Indian Muslim scholar, author and a journalist, who co-founded the Nadwatul Musannifeen and served as the editor of bi-weekly newspaper Madina. He was the son of Muhammad Mian Mansoor An ...

was the editor of

Madina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari 1884 births 1946 deaths People from Saharanpur Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Hindu–German Conspiracy Deobandis 20th-century Indian Muslims Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Students of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi