“Remembering an Eminent Historian of India: Life and Works of Professor Syed Hasan Askari,

Exploring Medieval Indian Culture and History - Omnibus Volume 1”

 

*Foreword by Richard Eaton

 

 

*Authors & Contributors

Syed Ahmer Raza

Imtiaz Ahmad

Hannah Archambault

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This engaging unique book (400+ pages), for the first time, presents the official comprehensive & extended chronological biography of Professor Askari in the first part followed by a detailed historiographical section on the recently drafted abstracts, analysis, and reviews of his consolidated scholarly papers in the second part and third part respectively. The fourth part gives an insight into the bibliography of the published and unpublished scholarly works of Prof. Askari. The fifth part shares the excerpts of the reminisces and testimonials from scholars all over the world, paying their tribute to life and legacy of Prof. Askari.

 

**Contents

 

*Part I - Biography

Life, Education & Career

Awards, Distinctions & Honors

Professional Achievements

Exploration & Research

Anecdotes

 

*Part II - Historiography

An Overview

Initiation in Research

Major Writings

Edited and Translated Texts

Edited Works

History of Bihar

Articles

Collected Works

Writings in Urdu

Writings on Contemporaries

Primary Sources

Proficiency in Persian and Manuscriptology

Studies of Sufism

Socio-Cultural History

Sikhs and the Punjab

Miscellaneous Writings

Archival Reports

Memorial Lectures

Bihar School of Medievalists

Peer Review

 

*Part III – Abstracts & Précises of Published Works

Essays

Books

 

*Part IV - Bibliography of Publications

Classifications of Scholarly Articles & Research Papers

Collected Works, Compiled & Edited Volumes and Manuscripts Translations

 

*Part V –Testimonials

Reminiscences

Reviews

 

*Part VI – Chronology, Photographs, Historical Documents & Reports

Chronology

Pictorial Glimpses

Invitation Letters & Correspondences

Commemorative & Felicitation Volumes

Book Dedications

Exploration - Survey Reports

Exploration - Epigraphical Studies

 

*Part VII – Sources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

 

*Abbreviations

*Glossary

*Final Note

*Epilogue

*Afterword & What’s Next

*Special Recognition

*Team’s Profile

*Index

*Disclaimer

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Endorsements

Excerpts from Foreword:

The present volume – the first in a larger plan -- is a tribute to one of India’s finest historians.  It is also the culmination of a sustained collaborative effort on the part of several dedicated individuals, each of whom has brought a unique expertise to the project.

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Most importantly, it is Askari Sahib’s grandson, Syed Ahmer Raza, who from the very beginning has been the driving force behind the Professor Syed Hasan Askari Historiography Project.  Indeed, it is no surprise that the two men are closely related: Mr. Raza has proved just as indefatigable in seeing this volume through to publication as was Prof. Askari in hunting down, analyzing, and publishing so many materials that might otherwise have been lost to history.  One can only look forward to the appearance of the Project’s second volume, which aims to republish all 250-plus articles that comprise Prof. Askari’s life’s work. Many of these articles originally appeared in outlets that remain relatively inaccessible even in our present age of instant information retrieval. Their republication therefore promises to be a great boon to future scholars of Indian history. But in the meantime, both the academic world and the reading public will be deeply indebted to Mr. Raza and his collaborators for taking this initial plunge into the vast ocean that is Prof. Askari’s scholarly corpus.

 

It is fitting that the volume’s essay on Prof. Askari’s place in the broader field of Indian historiography is written by Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad, himself a former faculty member of Patna University and the Director of the Khuda Bakhsh Library from 2004 to 2014. Dr. Ahmad is therefore intimately familiar with the two institutions with which Prof. Askari was for so long and so closely associated.   

Dr. Hannah L. Archambault, a scholar of Indo-Persian history who completed her doctorate in South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has made several contributions to this volume.  By exploiting an array of original sources, she has pieced together a survey of Prof. Askari’s long and productive academic career, one that bridged India’s late colonial and early postcolonial periods.  Dr. Archambault also performed the heroic task of summarizing, commenting on, and furnishing the bibliographic details about the hundreds of scholarly contributions that Prof. Askari produced between the late 1930s and his death in 1990.  These concise, annotated abstracts form this volume’s core, since they detail the aim, the scope, and the findings of each contribution in Prof. Askari’s substantial oeuvre.

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Professor Dr. Richard M. Eaton, Author of "India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765", Department of History, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

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Excerpts from Preface:

This Omnibus Volume 1 is a joint collaborative effort. Syed Ahmer Raza has done the foundational work of outlining the structure of the book in addition to collecting all the required information, articles etc. besides the texts; Dr. Hannah Archambault has prepared the extended biography and abstracts of hundreds of articles; My role has been editorial and advisory, besides making a brief survey of Professor Askari’s scholarly works assessing their significance in the historiography section.

Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad, Former Director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, India

 

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Excerpts from Contributor’s Note:

Finally, let me take this opportunity to thank the other contributors for their energy and commitment.

Syed Ahmer Raza has at every turn shown great trust in my work and in my efforts to portray his grandfather as a scholar and an individual. I hope that his trust has been in some degree warranted. It is thanks to his tirelessness, organization, and vision that this project has come to fruition.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmad has been gracious and patient with my stumbling progress in learning about his former teacher. His thoughtful essays on Professor Askari as a historian (published in this volume and elsewhere) were my first resource on the topic.

Professor Dr. Hannah Archambault, Ashland, Oregon, USA

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Endorsements on the Back Cover:

There are few people who remain steeped in their place of birth yet project an influence across time and space far beyond their domicile. Syed Hasan Askari is one such rare, and laudable, individual. A native of Bihar, he never left its environs, except for research or conference attendance elsewhere in India. He was at once resilient and engaged, productive and generous in all that he did. I still believe that we would not have a fraction of the progress in research we now have, 40 years on, without Professor Askari’s stellar contribution. His light continues to shine on the place and the subject to which he dedicated his long life, his lustrous career now magnified by this welcome Omnibus Volume 1. Thank you Ahmer and the team!

Dr. Bruce Lawrence, Author of "Notes from a Distant Flute" & Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion, Duke University, NC, USA.

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I am deeply impressed with the content of this omnibus volume.  It really reflects the impact of Askari Sahib’s scholarly career and his invaluable contributions to South Asian History.  I learned a great deal from his many many articles and would like to read a number of them that I hadn’t seen earlier. Ahmer, Many thanks for working on this important project - what a boon to scholarship!

Dr. Catherine Ella Blanshard Asher, Author of "Architecture of Mughal India" & Professor of Islamic and Indian Art History, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, MN, USA.

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Thanks to the publication of the book Life & Times of a Legendary Historian. I am so impressed by the work Ahmer and the team have done. It’s great and huge work! It’s so useful.  The career of the great historian, Syed Hasan Askari is reconstituted and, at last, an exhaustive presentation of his works is made available. For all the scholars who are interested in the history of pre-modern and modern Bihar, and the history of the Sufi orders in India, this book restores the place of Syed Hasan Askari among the greatest historians of India and offers a major advance for research in History, Social Sciences and History of Religions. Congratulations!

Dr. Catherine Servan-Schreiber, École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France.

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Feedback:

This volume is unique and interesting; giving a comprehensive idea of the ‘Bihar Ratna’ who was the torchbearer so far as the research on medieval Indian history of India and specially Bihar is concerned. This volume, I am sure, will generate interests of the students and researchers of history of Bihar to further explore in the lines shown by the legendary historian of Bihar, Professor Syed Hasan Askari. I would not miss to congratulate Syed Ahmer Raza (and the team) for making the painstaking effort to bring out this priceless volume.  

Dr. Syed Ejaz Hussain, Author of "The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins, A.D. 1205-1576", Professor & Head, Department of History, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.

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Many congratulations Ahmer. I’m really happy to see the book coming to fruition. I think it will be a great asset for a new generation of scholars who are less familiar with Professor Askari’s work.

Professor Nile Green, Author of "Sufism: A Global History" & Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Kudos Ahmer & team ! One can tell that this (scholarship) is a labor of love and dedication. The comprehensiveness is impressive as is the logical layout. Great job! I am looking forward to adding this and subsequent volumes to our collection.

Mr. Adnan Malik, Curator and Cataloger for the South Asia Collection, South/Southeast Asia Library, University of California Berkeley, USA

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The Omnibus Volume has been so meticulously compiled by Ahmer (and the team).

Dr. Sanjay Garg, Author of “The Coins of Dal Khalsa and Lahore Darbar in the Sheesh Mahal Museum, Patiala”, & Director of the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, Kazakhstan.

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The (Omnibus Volume 1) is impressive and would be a great help especially for the medievalists. Well done and best wishes, Ahmer and team! 

Dr. Fouzia Farooq Ahmed, Author of "Muslim Rule in Medieval India: Power and Religion in the Delhi Sultanate" & Assistant Professor, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

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Forthcoming 2023

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