Mohammad Ajmal Khan
Mohammad Ajmal
Khan (حکیم اجمل خان دہلوی)(11 February 1868 – 29 December 1927), better known as Hakim Ajmal Khan,
was a physician in Delhi, India, and one of the founders of the Jamia Millia
Islamia University. He also founded another institution, Ayurvedic and Unani
Tibbia College, better known as Tibbia College, situated in Karol Bagh, Delhi.
He was the only muslim to chair a session of the Hindu Mahasabha. He became the
university's first chancellor in 1920 and remained in office until his death in
1927.
Contents
1
Biography
2
Politics
3
Death and legacy
3.1
After partition
4
Quotes
5
See also
6
References
7
Further reading
8
External links
Biography
Born on 11 February 1868 (17
Shawwal 1284), Khan descended from a line of physicians who had come to India during
the reign of Mughal Emperor Babar. His family were all Unani doctors (hakims
who had practiced this ancient form of medicine since their arrival in the
country. They were then known as the Rais of Delhi. His grandfather, Hakim
Sharif Khan, was a physician to Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam and had built the
Sharif Manzil, a hospital-cum-college teaching Unani medicine.
Hakim Ajmal
Khan learnt the Quran by heart and as a child studied traditional Islamic
knowledge including Arabic and Persian, before turning his energy to the study
of medicine under the guidance of his senior relatives, all of whom were
well-known physicians. To promote the practice of Tibb-i-Unani or Unani
medicine, his grandfather had set up the Sharif Manzil hospital-cum-college
known throughout the subcontinent as one of the best philanthropic Unani
hospitals where treatment for poor patients was free.[6] He completed his Unani
studies under Hakeem Abdul Jameel of Siddiqui Dawakhana, Delhi.
On qualifying
in 1892, Hakim Ajmal Khan became chief physician to the Nawab of Rampur. Hailed
as "Massiha-e-Hind" (Healer of India) and "a king without a
crown". Hakim Ajmal Khan, like his father, was reputed to effect
miraculous cures and to have possessed a "magical" medicine chest, the
secrets of which were known to him alone.[6] Such was his medical acumen that
it is said that he could diagnose any illness by just looking at a person's
face. Hakim Ajmal Khan charged Rs. 1000 per day for an out-of-town visit but if
the patient came to Delhi, he was treated free, regardless of his position in
society.
Khan proved to
be the most outstanding and multifaceted personality of his era with matchless
contributions to the causes of Indian independence, national integration and
communal harmony.
He took great
interest in the expansion and development of the native system of Unani
medicine and to that end built three important institutions, the Central
College in Delhi, the Hindustani Dawakhana and the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia
College better known as Tibbia College, Delhi, which expanded research and
practice in the field and saved the Unani System of Medicine from extinction in
India. His untiring efforts in this field infused a new force and life into an
otherwise decaying Unani medical system under British rule. Khan proposed the
absorption of Western concepts within the Unani system, a view diametrically
opposite to that adopted by physicians of the Lucknow school who wanted to
maintain the system's purity.
Hakim Ajmal
Khan also recognized the talents of chemist Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, whose
subsequent research into important medicinal plants used in the field gave
Unani medicine a new direction.[9]
As one of its
founders, Khan was elected first chancellor of the Jamia Milia Islamia
University on 22 November 1920, holding the position until his death in 1927.
During this period, he oversaw the University's move to Delhi from Aligarh and
helped it to overcome various crises, including financial ones, when he carried
out extensive fund raising and often bailed it out using his own money.
Politics
Hakim Ajmal
Khan changed from medicine to politics after he started writing for the Urdu
weekly Akmal-ul-Akhbar launched by his family. Khan also headed the Muslim team
who met the Viceroy of India in Shimla in 1906 and presented him with a
memorandum written by the delegation. At the end of December 1906, he actively
participated at the Dhaka founding of the All-India Muslim League on 30
December 1906. At a time when many Muslim leaders faced arrest, Khan approached
Mahatma Gandhi for help in 1917, thereafter uniting with him and other Muslim
leaders such as Maulana Azad, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Shaukat
Ali in the well-known Khilafat movement. Khan was also the sole person elected
to the Presidency of the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League and the All-India
Khilafat Committee.
Death and legacy
Before he died
of heart problems on 29 December 1927, Hakim Ajmal Khan had renounced his
government title, and many of his Indian followers awarded him the title of
Masih-ul-Mulk (Healer of the Nation). He was succeeded to the position of Jamia
Millia Islamia Chancellor by Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari.
After
partition
After the
partition of India, Khan's grandson Hakim Muhammad Nabi Khan moved to Pakistan.
Hakim Nabi had learnt Tibb (how to practice medicine) from his grandfather and
opened 'Dawakhana Hakim Ajmal Khan' in Lahore which has branches throughout
Pakistan. The motto of the Ajmal Khan family is Azal-ul-Allah-Khudatulmal,
which means that the best way to keep oneself busy is by serving humanity.
Quotes
"The spirit of non-cooperation pervades throughout the country and there is no true Indian heart even in the remotest corner of this great country which is not filled with the spirit of cheerful suffering and sacrifice to attain Swaraj and see the Punjab and the Khilafat wrongs redressed." – From the Presidential Address, Indian National Congress, 1921 Session, Ahmedabad.
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