Abdul Wali (1855 -1926) was a noted Muslim writer during the British period. He was an Indologist and Orientalist. He was an accomplished Muslim scholar and writer and name and fame during his time beginning from 1888 to 1926 until his death. He contributed at least 50 (fifty) articles to different noted journals of his time. These included among others, Journals of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta and Bangalore Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, The Indian Antiquary, The Islamic, The Calcutta Review, Journal of The Moslem Institute, etc. He also published a number of books and monographs also. His field of study included history, sociology and cultural anthropology, folklore, antiquarian, Islam and Sufism, music and many contemporary events.
His articles caught the attention of scholars of his time and his knowledge of Persian language and literature was better than many in his time. In fact, he was a reputed scholar and writer in those days. Beside Bangla which was his mother tongue, he knew English, Arabic, Urdu and Persian and Sanskrit languages. He had a good knowledge of Mundari language and a few other tribal languages also. Wali was the first among many scholars who had worked on Sufi Faqirs, Lalon and Bauls. His article entitled, ‘On Curious Tenets and Practices of a Certain Class of Faquirs in Bengal’ was read in the general meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1998 and later it was published in the Journal of Anthropological Society of Bombay in 1900. Â
In fact, many of these Journals where Wali had contributed and a good number of books and monographs he had written in those days, are not available now and he is little known to the present day scholars. The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh published a brief report about Wali in Banglapedia by the present author. Bangla Academy, Dhaka, however, published a small book under the name ‘Khan Sahib Abdul Wali’ in 1995 by the present author. No other books, however, are available now that could give a detailed life history and his literary activities during the British India.
The Khan Sahib Title (1912) and Fellowship of the Royal Asiatic Society (1914)
The British Government honored Abdul Wali for his sincere and dedicated service and awarded him with the title of ‘Khan Sahib’ in 1912. His research works and his scholarly contribution to leading journals of his time in British India earned for him the fellowship of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1914.
Obituary: Johan Van Manen. His greatness as a scholar was highly appreciated
The greatness of Khan Sahib Abdul Wali as a scholar had been excellently reflected in the obituary made by the then General Secretary, Johan Van Manen of Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta.Mr. Johan Van Manen wrote: ‘The late Khan Sahib Maulavi Abdul Wali was at the time of his death on the 24th of November, 1926, one of the senior members of the society, having joined in the year 1894, 32 years before as a mufassil member. In 1911, he came to Calcutta where he resided until his death. He belonged to a zemindar family of the Khulna district whose ancestors came to India in the army department, many of them being the recipients of the title Mullah. Abdul Wali was born in 1855, studied in the Calcutta Madrasha, then in the St. Xavier’s and Presidency Colleges in the same city. He served in the Registration Department, in Bengal, for more than 30 years in various capacities. First as rural Sub-Registrar, then as Sale Registrar, Sub-Registrar, District Sub-Registrar, Inspector of Registration offices on Bengal and lastly as Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta. From early youth he was fond of study and he was especially interested in antiquarian research and Indian history. During the last 25 years contributed about 20 papers to the Society’s journal, his last contributions dating from shortly before his death at the age of 71. He also published a number of pamphlets and book-lets on Islamic subjects at his own cost. Persian was his chief love and he prepared a number of translations from Persian into English and from English into Persian. A few contributions in English and continental oriental journals brought his name more prominently before western scholars and he corresponded with a number of European Orientalists.
After his retirement from government service he used to spend the greater part of his time in the rooms of the Society where he was the most constant visitor Literary tastes and temperament made him a somewhat a lonely man. He had outlived many of his contemporaries and felt somewhat out of touch with the younger generation. His intellectual and social life was mainly centered in the surroundings and company which the society furnished, and during the latter part of his life he was the most assiduous assistant at the monthly general meetings.
The Khan Sahib represented an older generation amongst our membership and by his death a link with the past is broken. The Society is poorer for his departure which leaves a gap which cannot be entirely filled by any other. We salute the memory of an old friend and valued member and pay our affectionate homage to him’ John Van Manen
A Genius Forgotten
Unfortunately, he is not very much known to the present day scholars because of the fact that his works are not available now. He was a life member of the Asiatic Society and registered his name when he worked as a Sub-Registrar Shailkupa Thana Head-quarters under Jhenaidah then a Sub-division under Jessore district. Â
It is needless to say that the life of Maulavi Abdul Wali was inevitably bound to the same tyranny of his time. It is, therefore, a duty of the scholars to evaluate him properly to give his rightful place in history in the light of correct background, base, purview and perspective. This task has become all the more important as well as urgent in view of the fact that the mighty waves of time and some other factors, connected with the objective and subjective conditions prevalent in Bengal during the opening quarter of the twentieth century, entirely effaced the memory of Abdul Wali from the mental slates of the subsequent generations with a very few exceptions. Â
It is, no doubt, a pity that such a scholar, who was recognised by the then British Government and also by the Royal Asiatic Society of the British India, could be forgotten by his own men. It is indeed unfortunate that a literary figure who was in his life time caught the attention of the world for his unparalleled erudition, would go into oblivion. None, in his time in Bengal, was superior to him in regard to the knowledge of Persian language and literature. Many of the indexes of the Journals and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal published during the last decades of the 19th century and also during the first quarters of the 20th century included the name of Abdul Wali. The Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay and the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangalore also published a number of articles by him. He also made a number of monographs. He deserves a place in the History of Bengal and also in the History of India. History deals not only with the live of the kings and queens and great individuals, it must include those men and women who provide sediments of the millions of people who have left no name but who made their contribution to the making of Bengali as a nation. ‘Their lives make the material of history as a coral-reef is built up out of the lives of millions of mollusks.’
Such a great man as was Wali, died in a deplorable condition in Kolkata city. His personal library consisted of approximately over three thousand volumes indifferent languages. There were also many precious manuscripts in his collection. Many books and manuscripts were stolen and sold to ordinary and illiterate shopkeepers who used these as covers for commodities. Some were even used as fuel during rainy season.
Life sketch
Khan Sahib Abdul Wali was born in 1855 at Shurulia in the then Satkhira sub-division, now a district. His father, Maulavi Abdur Rauf, was a Munsiff. At that time there were few Muslims numbering 37 only who got jobs during those days of the British rule in Bengal. The Hindus numbered 178 and there was one English man. Mullah Nayim, the father of Maulavi Abdur Rauf, was a teacher of Persian and Arabic in Fort-William College, Calcutta in the British India. Mullah Nayim was the son of Mullah Ghulam Muhammad who was a religious recluse of great fame. His grandfather Mullah Moyez was originally an inhabitant of Baghdad. He claimed himself to be a descendant of Hazrath Abu Bakr, the first caliph of the State of Islam. He came to Bengal when Prince Shah Shuja was the Viceroy of Bengal. Mullah Moyez worked in the army of Shah Shuja. He was a highly learned man and took pains to educate the local people in Islamic education. Abdul Wali was the fourth among his five brothers. He passed the F.A. examination from the St. Xavier’s College. After that he studied at the Presidency College in Calcutta. Wali studied Arabic, Urdu, Bangla and Persian under the care of the distinguished private tutors. But he had to give up his studies following the death of his elder brother Abdul Matin who was a teacher of Arabic and Persian language in Patna and looked after him. Wali took a job of a rural Sub-Registrar in 1884. He was posted at Shailkupa Thana under Jhenidah sub-division in Jessore district. He served in that capacity for a period of 17 years. He was isolated from city and town life. But the rural life opened up a new vista in his life. Here he came to know of traditional culture and its heritage. And this brought him very close to Sufi and Baul mystics and Vaishnava folk poets and their music. It was indeed a fruitful experience and he could make a study of this obscure religious cults. Lalon Fakir then earned name and fame as a religious mendicants and performer of folk music. There was always an urge in him to know the country and the people. Calcutta, presently Kolkata was not far off Khulna and Jessore. It was a kind of daily service. Wali studied in different libraries including Imperial Library in Kolkata. During this time, he became a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta and started contributing articles to the journals and attending meetings and also presenting papers and these were subsequently published in various journals during the British period. The Journals that published his works include Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Bangalore, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Journal of the Indian Antiquary, The Islamica, and Journal of the Moslem Institute, Calcutta, and Calcutta Review etc. Abdul Wali was also interested in Bengal History and Bengali Literature. He was a member of Bangiyo Shahitya Parisad Mandir. He also attended the meetings of the Parisad regularly. I could not trace out his writings in any of the Bengali Journals published in those days.
(The writer is Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and also Executive Director, Northern University, Bangladesh. He founded Lalon Academy in 1963 and Folklore Research Institute in 1970 in Kushtia).
