Tafazzul Husain Khan Kashmiri (1727–1801) (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Twelver Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

scholar, physicist, and philosopher. He produced an Arabic translation of Sir Isaac Newton's '' Principia''.

Early life and education

Tafazzul Husain Kashmiri was born to a Kashmiri family in

Sialkot Sialkot ( ur, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Sialkot District and the 13th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined with Jammu (the winter capital of Indian administered Jammu and Ka ...

in 1727. His grandfather, Karamullah, was a scholar who served as a minister under

Moin-ul-Mulk Mian-Moin-ul-Mulk also known by his title Mir Mannu (died 1753) was the Mughal and later Durrani governor of the Punjab between 1748 and 1753. Early life Moin-ul-Mulk was the son of Qamar-ud-Din Khan, Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire, and youn ...

, governor of Lahore. At the age of 13, his father moved to Delhi, where he studied basic logic and philosophy under Mulla Wajih, a student of the Sunni scholar Mulla Nizam-ud-Din. He learned Mathematics from Mirza Muhammad Ali. At the age of 18, his family moved to Lucknow where he joined the seminary of

Firangi Mahal Firangi Mahal is a building complex located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in Lucknow at Victoria Road and Chowk. The word Firang (originally referring to Franks) refers to Europeans and '' Mahal'' means palace in Persian. T ...

. Soon he developed doubts about the teachings of Sunni Islam and philosophy and moved out of the seminary, and started to research on his own. He then converted to Shia Islam and studied modern science and astronomy of his age.Rizvi, "A Socio-Intellectual History of Isna Ashari Shi'is in India", Vol. 2, pp. 227–228, Ma’rifat Publishing House, Canberra, Australia (1986). He had learned the philosophy of

Mulla Sadra Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā ( fa, ملا صدرا; ar, صدر المتألهین) (c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE / 980 – 1050 AH), was a Persian Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, the ...

in Firangi Mahal, but moved on.

Scholarly career

Shuja-ud-Daula Shuja-ud-Daula (b. – d. ) was the Subedar and Nawab of Oudh and the Vizier of Delhi from 5 October 1754 to 26 January 1775. Early life Shuja-ud-Daula was the son of the Mughal Grand Vizier Safdarjung chosen by Ahmad Shah Bahadur. Unlike ...

appointed him tutor to his son

Saadat Ali Khan II Yameen-ud Daula Saadat Ali Khan II Bahadur ( fa, سعادت علی خان, hi, सआदत अली ख़ान, ur, ) (bf. 1752 – c. 11 July 1814) was the sixth Nawab wazir of Oudh, Nawab of Oudh from 21 January 1798 to 11 July 1814 ...

in Allahabad. There the then young

Dildar Ali Naseerabadi Sayyid Dildar 'Ali, also known as Ghufran-Ma'ab Naseerabadi, (1753 – 10 January 1820) was a Shia scholar of India, from the village of Nasirabad, Raibareli in Uttar Pradesh, India. His best-known work is "Imad-ul-Islâm", in Arabic, a refutati ...

, who later came to be known as Ghufran Maab, became his student. In the time of Nawab

Asaf-ud-Daula Mirza Asaf-ud-Daula (23 September 1748 – 21 September 1797) was the Nawab wazir of Oudh ratified by Shah Alam II, from 26 January 1775 to 21 September 1797, and the son of Shuja-ud-Dowlah. His mother and grandmother were the Begums of Oudh. ...

, Kashmiri was appointed as an ambassador to the court of governor general of

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

at Calcutta. There he learnt Greek, Latin and English and started to translate scientific works of European scientists into Arabic to bridge the gap between the

scientific revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...

and the Muslim and Indian educational institutions. Science had flourished in the 18th century Europe due to public discussions in coffee houses, pubs, shops, fairs and other public places. By the end of eighteenth century CE, Calcutta had become a major center of cultural exchange where several scientific works, like

James Ferguson James Ferguson may refer to: Entertainment * Jim Ferguson (born 1948), American jazz and classical guitarist * Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, past member of Lotion * Jim Ferguson, American movie critic, Board of Directors member for the Broadca ...

's "''Introduction to Electricity''",

Tiberius Cavallo Tiberius Cavallo (also Tiberio) (30 March 1749, Naples, Italy21 December 1809, London, England) was an Italian physicist and natural philosopher. His interests included electricity, the development of scientific instruments, the nature of " ai ...

's "''A Complete Treatise on Electricity''" and his "''Essay on Theory and Practice of Medical Electricity''", George Adams's "''Essays on Electricity''",

Thomas Beddoes Thomas Beddoes (13 April 176024 December 1808) was an English physician and scientific writer. He was born in Shifnal, Shropshire and died in Bristol fifteen years after opening his medical practice there. He was a reforming practitioner and t ...

's "''Factitious Airs''",

Jean-Antoine Chaptal Jean-Antoine Chaptal, comte de Chanteloup (5 June 1756 – 30 July 1832) was a French chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator and philanthropist. His multifaceted career unfolded during one of the most brilliant periods ...

's "''Chemistry''" and scholarly journals like the "''

Philosophical Magazine The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Univer ...

''", were in circulation. The members of

The Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

, founded by William Jones in 1784, held discussions on philosophy.Savithri Preetha Nair, �
Bungallee House set on fire by Galvanism: Natural and Experimental Philosophy as Public Science in a Colonial Metropolis (1794–1806)
��; In: The Circulation of Knowledge Between Britain, India and China; pp. 45–74, Brill, (2013).

Works

He authored the following: * ''Commentary on Conica of Appollonus''. * ''Two treatise on Algebra''. * ''Commentary on Conica of

Diophantus Diophantus of Alexandria ( grc, Διόφαντος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; born probably sometime between AD 200 and 214; died around the age of 84, probably sometime between AD 284 and 298) was an Alexandrian mathematician, who was the aut ...

''. * ''Translation of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia''. * ''A book on Physics''. * ''A book on Western Astronomy''. Some of these books were taught in Shia seminaries in the nineteenth century Lucknow. His successor, Saadat Ali Khan, founded an observatory in Lucknow.

Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah (c. 1769 – 19 October 1827) was the last nawab wazir of Oudh from 11 July 1814 to 19 October 1818, and first King of Oudh (Oudh State) from 19 October 1818 to 19 October 1827. Life He was the third son of Nawab Saada ...

and

Nasir-ud-Din Haidar Shah Nasir-ud-Din Haidar Shah ( hi, नासिर उद दीन हैदर शाह , ur, ) (9 September 1803 – 7 July 1837) was the second King of Oudh from 19 October 1827 to 7 July 1837. Life He was the son of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar ...

patronized modern scientific learning.

Collaboration with James Dinwiddie

James Dinwiddie first taught him Optics and then modern geometry. To his surprise, Tafazzul was struggling with mathematics. He rermarked:

"It is somewhat irregular that a man who reads so much theory should be so totally ignorant of practical mathematics".

Opposition from Sunni orthodoxy

Shah Abdul Aziz Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddith Dehlavi (11 October 1746 – 5 June 1824; ) was Muhaddith (scholar of Hadith) and Mujadid Sufi and reformer from India. He was of the Naqshbandi Sufi order which emerged from a tradition of violent backlash against the ...

, son of

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Quṭb-ud-Dīn Aḥmad Walīullāh Ibn ʿAbd-ur-Raḥīm Ibn Wajīh-ud-Dīn Ibn Muʿaẓẓam Ibn Manṣūr Al-ʿUmarī Ad-Dehlawī ( ar, ‎; 1703–1762), commonly known as Shāh Walīullāh Dehlawī (also Shah Wali Allah), was an Islamic ...

, considered him an apostate because of some of his views.Rizvi, "A Socio-Intellectual History of Isna Ashari Shi'is in India", Vol. 2, p. 229, Ma’rifat Publishing House, Canberra, Australia (1986). شاه عبد العزیز، " ملفوظات شاه عبد العزیز"، ص ۱۱۷، مطبع مجتبائی، میرٹھ.

Death

In 1799, he suffered a brain hemorrhage which left his body in a state of paralysis. He died travelling from Banaras to Lucknow on 3 March 1801. Mirza Abu Talib Khan wrote the following eulogy upon receiving the news of his death while in London: "Alas! The zest of Learning's cup is gone; Whose taste ne’er cloy’d, tho’ deep the draughts; Whose flavor yet upon the palate hangs Nectareous, nor Reason's thirst assuag’d But yes; – rent is the garment of the morn; And all dishevell’d floats the hair of night; All bath’d in tears of dew the stars look down With mournful eyes, in lamentation deep; For he, their sage belov’d, is dead; who first To Islam's followers explain’d their laws, Their distances, their orbits, and their times, As great Copernicus once half divin’d, And greater Newton proved; but, useless now, Their work we turn with idle hand, and scan With vacant eye, our own first master gone."Rizvi, "A Socio-Intellectual History of Isna Ashari Shi'is in India", Vol. 2, pp. 229-230, Ma’rifat Publishing House, Canberra, Australia (1986).

References

External links

Life of Allama Tafazzul Husain Khan (1908)

Notes of Dr. James Dinwiddie's lecture on forces and motion
{{Authority control Indian Shia Muslims Indian Shia clerics Scholars from Lucknow Shia Islam in India Shia Islam in Pakistan 1727 births 1801 deaths