Shah Nuri Bengali | |
|---|---|
শাহ নূরী বাঙ্গালী | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Babupura,Jahangir Nagar,Bengal Subah |
| Died | 1785 CE |
| Resting place | Maghbazar |
| Other names | Shah Nuri Bangali |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| School | Hanafi |
| Muslim leader | |
| Disciple of | Baghu Dewan |
| Arabic name | |
| Personal (Ism) | Shāh Nūrī شاه نوري |
| Patronymic (Nasab) | ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ghulām Muḥammad بن عبد الله بن غلام محمد |
| Toponymic (Nisba) | al-Bangālī البنغالي |
| Islam in Bangladesh |
|---|
 |
Ideology/schools of thought |
Shāh Nūrī Bengālī (Bengali:শাহ নূরী বাঙ্গালী,Persian:شاه نوری بنگالی; died 1785) was an 18th-centuryBengaliIslamic scholar and author fromDhaka.[1] He is best known for hismagnum opus,Kibrīt-e-Aḥmar, which was written in thePersian language.[2]
Shah Nuri was born into aBengali Muslim family from the village of Babupura inDhaka, the capital ofMughal Bengal. The 20th-century Bangladeshi historianSyed Muhammed Taifoor describes the family to have been "very old and learned citizens of Dhaka".[3] Their ancestor, Shah Bahauddin, arrived fromBaghdad.[4] Both Shah Nuri's father, Shaykh Abdullah Mujaddidi and grandfatherMawlana Shaykh Ghulam Muhammad Mujaddidi, weresaliks at theKhanqah of Babupura and taught theIslamic sciences at the Babupura madrasa. As his grandfather was amurid (disciple) of thePunjabi scholarAhmad Sirhindi, they belonged to theMujaddidiyah suborder of theNaqshbandiSufi order. Other than his father, among his grandather's renowned disciples were ShaykhAbdullah Jahangirnagari and ShaykhLutfullah Meherpuri who were teachers at theLalbagh Mridha Madrasa.[5] His sister, Mariam Saleha, constructed the historicMariam Saleha Mosque of Babupara in 1706.[6]
He was educated in the city'smadrasa, which was founded by Bengal'sgovernorShaista Khan in Pathartali Katra, four miles away from Maghbazar.[7] After that, he enrolled at the Furqaniyyah Dar al-Ulum Madrasa inMotijhil,Murshidabad, which was founded byNawazish Muhammad Khan.[8] Shah Nuri then became amurid (disciple) of Baghu Dewan of Binni Bazar,Rajshahi. During his education he studied books such asMashariq al-Anwar `ala Sahih al-Athar, a book onHadith byQadi Iyad, andSharh Matali`, a book onlogic by Qutb ad-Din al-Razi.[9]
In 1775, he wrote a book titledKibrīt-e-Aḥmar (Red Sulphur) in thePersian language.[10] However, Saghir Hasan al-Masumi argues that it was written in 1763.[11] The book was focused ontasawwuf, but also contained biographies of contemporarySufis, such as a list of themurids of the Babupura Khanqah.[12]
Nuri returned to Dhaka in 1779, where he set up a newkhanqah inMaghbazar. He spent his life disseminating Islamic values to his followers at the khanqah.[13] Many of theNaib Nazims of Dhaka and the laterNawabs of Dhaka were disciples of Shah Nuri and his descendants.[14][15] In particular, Shah Nuri was thepir andmurshid of Naib NazimJasarat Khan.[3]
Nuri died in 1785 and was buried in Maghbazar, Dhaka.[9] The historian Taifoor was of the opinion that he died in 1774, although this is inconsistent with the date of completion of Nuri's book.[3] He had four sons, all of whom died in their childhood except the fourth; Abul Wafa Shah Muhammadi (d. 1835), who succeeded him as theGaddi nasheen of Maghbazar Khanqah. His sons were buried next to him in amazar (mausoleum).Khwaja Abdullah of theNawab family requested to be buried next to Nuri, and is now buried towards his right.[5][16]
During this period, such books would be copied by hand rather than printing. One manuscript of Nuri's book was hand-written by Sadruddin Ahmad ofMahuttuli.[17] This is now preserved at the Hakim Habibur Rahman Collection of theDhaka University Library.[18] A girls' school in Dhaka has been named after him as Shahnuri Model Girls High School in Shahshab Bari Road.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)