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Sheikh Muhammad Ikram (
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
(which he joined in 1931). In 1947, when
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 ...
emerged from
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, Ikram opted for Pakistan and served in the
Civil Service of Pakistan The Central Superior Services (CSS; or Civil Service) is a permanent elite civil service authority, and the civil service that is responsible for running the bureaucratic operations and government secretariats and directorates of the Cabinet of ...
. On July 1, 1966, he was appointed as director, Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, a position he occupied until his death in 1973, at the age of sixty-four.


Personal life

S. M. Ikram's parents were from Rasulnagar, a small town in the Wazirabad Sub-Division of
Gujranwala District Gujranwala District ( Punjabi and ur, ), is a district that is a part of the Majha region in Punjab, Pakistan. Gujranwala District is bordered by the districts of Gujrat, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura. Gujranwala distri ...
in the
Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprisin ...
in present-day
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 ...
. His father, Sheikh Fazal Kareem, was a Qanungo, a pre-Mughal hereditary office of revenue and judicial administration; his mother was Sardar Begum. Ikram was the eldest of five brothers and two sisters. Ikram's father wanted to name his son Abdul Qadir, after the name of the editor of the first
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Gujrat to the elder of two daughters (Zebunnisa and Zeenat) of Mian Mukhtar Nabi ("Mianji"), at the time deputy director, the Punjab Agriculture Department. Ikram's wife passed her matriculation examinations from Delhi, and obtained her B.A. in Persian, English, and History from Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore. At his death 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 ...
on January 17, 1973, he was survived by his wife, Zebunnisa (1910–1999), and four children.


Education

Ikram completed his primary education in Kacha Gojra (located between
Faisalabad Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...
and Toba Tek Singh); his secondary education, from Mission High School,
Wazirabad Wazirabad (Urdu/ pa, ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Wazirabad District. Famous for its cutlery products, it is known as the city of cutlery and is also quite famous for its foods. Wazirabad is situated on the banks of ...
; his matriculation, in 1924, from Government High School (that later became
Government Intermediate College
,
Lyallpur Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...
; from where he also passed the Faculty of Arts (F.A.) examinations in 1926. During these four years in Lyallpur (1922–1926) Ikram developed his taste and proficiency in the Persian language and poetry. From Lyallpur he moved to Lahore and graduated from Government College with a B.A. in Persian (''cum laude''), English, and Economics, in 1928; and an M.A. in English Literature in 1930.


Professional life

Although a full-time civil servant, S. M. Ikram is more famous for his prolific output as a published writer. After obtaining his M.A. (1930) Ikram appeared for the ICS examinations in January 1931 in Delhi. On selection, he was sent in September to
Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship S ...
, for two years (1931–1933). On return from England in October Ikram was posted to various positions in the Bombay Presidency (November 1933 to September 1947). At partition, he opted for Pakistan and after attending an official farewell in Puna on September 18, 1947, he emigrated to Pakistan and took up his official position on September 29, 1947. He taught at Columbia University in New York (as a visiting professor in 1953–1954, and visited again in 1958–59 and 1961–62. It was here that he made the transition from literature to history and started writing in English rather than Urdu.


Major works

A major difficulty in reviewing the works of Ikram arises from the fact that he published interim works which he revised often, in the light of his new findings: correcting mistakes, adding, deleting, and rearranging sections, expanding one volume into two (changing the title of the work in the new edition and reverting to the old title in the next edition). In many cases the revisions were sufficiently major for the original and the revised to be treated as two separate works. A study of these differences is still awaited.


Works in the Urdu language

In their final versions, S. M. Ikram's major works in Urdu consist of biographies of two major literary figures in Urdu, and his ''magnum opus'', the three-volume intellectual history of Muslim India and Pakistan, comparable in scope and method to Vernon Parrington's ''
Main Currents in American Thought Vernon Louis Parrington (August 3, 1871 – June 16, 1929) was an American literary historian and scholar. His three-volume history of American letters, ''Main Currents in American Thought'', won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 and was on ...
'' (1927): * A critical biography of the classical Urdu and Persian poet, Ghālib, in three volumes (that might be called his Ghalib trilogy): ** ''Hayāt-e Ghālib'' (The Life of Ghālib, 5th ed. 1957): biography (''tazkira'') ** ''Hakīm-e Farzāna'' (The Wise Philosopher, 5th ed. 1957): criticism (of prose, ''tabsira''; consisting of two sections: Ghālib's literary development, and general discussion) ** ''Armaghān-e Ghālib'' (A Ghalib Offering, 3rd ed. c. 1944): critical appreciation (of poetry, ''intikhāb'') * A counter-biography—a subgenre that has been called "pathography" in our times—of Maulānā Shiblī Nu`mānī, written in response to Maulānā Sayyid Sulaimān Nadvī's ''Life of Shiblī'': ** Biography (''Shiblīnāma'', 1st ed. 1945/46); and ** A Revised Amended Ed. (''Yādgār-e Shiblī'', 1971) * A religious history of Muslim India and Pakistan: ** ''Āb-e Kausar'' (The Water of ''Kausar''), covering the Pre-Mughal (711–1526) period; ** ''Rūd-e Kausar'' (The River of ''Kausar''), covering the Mughal period (1526–1800); ** ''Mauj-e Kausar'' (The Wave of ''Kausar''), covering the post-Mughal (1800–1947) era.


Works in the English language

With the birth of Pakistan, Ikram took up his official duties in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and his attentions turned toward nation-building both in his official duties and his personal commitments. *The result were two books in English that were adapted from ''Mauj-e Kausar'': ** ''Makers of Pakistan and Modern Muslim India'', 1950 ** ''Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan (1858-1951)'', 1965 In August 1953 Ikram took leave for one year to take up the position of visiting professor at Columbia University, New York, which he visited again in 1958–59, and 1961–62. At Columbia he encountered an entirely different (non-Muslim, English-speaking) audience and was introduced to professional historians and their methods which, with his sympathy with Islam, facility in the Persian language, familiarity with original sources, and learning acquired over years of reading, writing, and reflecting, he found deficient: :In 1953–54, when I undertook a year's teaching assignment at Columbia University, the need for a book in English, dealing with all aspects of Indo-Muslim history, was forcefully brought home to me. I felt this need particularly with regard to American students who, in the absence of anything better, had to fall back upon Vincent Smith'
''Oxford History of India''
or similar compilations. Ikram's lectures at Columbia were the basis for three books: * ''History of Muslim Civilization in India and Pakistan (711–1858 A.D.)'', 1962; * A shorter American summary: ''Muslim Civilization in India'', 1964, edited by Professor Embree; and * An expanded national version: ''Muslim Rule in India and Pakistan (711-1858 A.D.)'', 1966


Unfinished works

At the time of his death, Ikram had been working on the draft of two books: one, a candid history written after he had retired and could write freely, entitled ''A History of Pakistan, 1947–1971'', was finished and was to have been published by June 1973; the other, ''A Biography of Quaid-e-Azam'', in which he wished to remedy the gap between the scholarship on Gandhi in India and that on Jinnah in Pakistan, was at an advanced stage of preparation. Unfortunately in the disarray surrounding his death both manuscripts were lost.


Honors and awards

* MRCAS (London): On the title page of ''Ghalibnama'' (1936) the author is listed as "Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, MA, MRCAS (London), ICS, Sub-Divisional Officer, Surat, Bombay Area. * In January 1964, the Punjab University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt. or ''Litterarum doctor'') degree. * In 1965, he was also awarded the Sitara-e Imtiaz, a civil award for especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of Pakistan, world peace, cultural or other significant public endeavors. * Shortly thereafter, the government of Iran awarded him ''Nishan-i Sipas'' (Order of Merit) for his service to literature. * In 1971, the government of Pakistan awarded him a
Pride of Performance The Pride of Performance ( ur, ), officially known as Presidential Pride of Performance, is an award bestowed by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to recognize people with "notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sports, an ...
medal, a civil award given to Pakistani citizens in recognition of distinguished merit, for his writings in the field of literature.


List of publications

The following list is based largely on Moazzamuddin (1994, and 1990).


Works in Urdu

* This consisted of three sections: tazkira (Remembrance), tabsira (Criticism), intikhāb (Selections). * * * * * * * Revised ed. 1977, published posthumously with preface by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Lahore: Idāra-e Saqāfat-e Islāmiya ( Institute of Islamic Culture). * * * 4th ed. 1958. * * * * * Pseudonymous. * 2nd ed. 1967.


Works in Persian

* 2nd ed. 1953; Tehran: Nashir Kanun Ma`arafat, 3rd ed. 1954, and Lahore: Combine Printers, Bilal Ganj, 3rd ed. c. 1971; Karachi: Idāra-e Matbū`āt Pakistan, 4th ed. 1959. * Urdu tr. Khwaja Abdul Hameed Yazdani, Lahore: Majlis-e Taraqqī-e Adab, 1966.


Works in English

* Pseudonymous. * An unauthorized reprint of this work enjoys wide circulation with the title ''Indian Muslims and Partition of India'' (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1992); available o
Google Books
* * * *


Notes


References

* * * * * Cited in Moazzamuddin, ''Life'', 16. * * * 2nd ed. 1929. A
Urdu translation
by Syed Mueenuddin Qureshi appeared in 1932. * * * Originally presented as the author's Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Urdu, Aligarh Muslim University, 1994; page numbers cited refer to the thesis. * * * * * * * * * *


External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikram, S. M. 1908 births 1973 deaths Pakistani civil servants Pakistani biographers Historians of Pakistan 20th-century Pakistani historians Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Recipients of the Pride of Performance