Further reading: Ibn al-Nadim, The Fihrist of al-Nadim:
A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Translated by
Bayard Dodge (New York: Columbia University Press,
1970); Roshdi Rashed, ed. Encyclopedia of the History
of Arabic Science. Vol. 2, Mathematics and the Physical
Sciences (London: Routledge, 1996).
Mawdudi, Abu al-Ala (Maudoodi)
(1903–1979) leading Muslim revivalist thinker
and founder of the Jamaat-i Islami movement in
India-Pakistan
Abu al-Ala Mawdudi was born in Awrangabad,
india, to a family claiming descent from Sufi
saints of the Chishti order who had migrated to
India from aFghanistan in the 15th century. His
father, Sayyid Ahmad Hasan, had close ties to the
Mughal court before the dynasty was overthrown
by the British in 1858. Later, Sayyid Ahmad and
other members of Mawdudi family were among
the first to be educated at the Muhammadan
Anglo-Oriental College at aligarh, which was
dedicated to providing Muslims with a modern
Westernized edUcation in order to prepare them
to participate in the colonial government of Brit-
ish India.
Mawdudi’s thought benefited from a diversified
educational career that began at home, where Sayyid
Ahmad organized a traditional Islamic curriculum
for him, consisting of Urdu and Persian learning,
elementary Arabic, and tales drawn from Islamic
history. Western learning was intentionally omitted
by his parents, because they wanted him to have
a solid grounding in Islamic tradition for a career
as a religious scholar. His formal education began
when he enrolled in a public school, where he was
exposed to the natural sciences and other modern
subjects. Mawdudi proved himself to be a gifted
student of Arabic, and he demonstrated his skills
in completing an Urdu translation of a work by the
Egyptian modernist writer Qasim Amin (d. 1908)
on the rights of women. At the age of 16 he was
forced to give up schooling because of his father’s
failing health. To provide for himself and his fam-
ily, he began a career as a writer. A few years later
he moved to delhi, where he continued to study
Persian and Urdu literature, but he also immersed
himself in the work of European philosophers and
modern Muslim intellectuals. He sought to grasp
the similarities and differences between traditional
knowledge and modern thought. By the time he
reached age 20, Mawdudi had developed close ties
to leading ulama of the deoband School and took
up advanced studies in the traditional branches of
Islamic learning, as well as sUFism, rhetoric, logic,
and philosophy. He completed his formal studies in
1926 at the Fatihpuri madrasa in Old Delhi, and he
was certified to be one of the Ulama. However, his
career took a different turn, and his status as a reli-
gious scholar remained concealed from the public
until after his death.
Mawdudi became a journalist and undertook
involvement in various causes, eventually becom-
ing one of India’s leading Muslim political figures.
He wrote briefly for a Delhi nationalist newspaper,
but he was then appointed as editor for the official
newspaper of the Jamiyyat Ulama-i hind (Society
of Indian Ulama), known as Muslim (later changed
to Jamiat). In this position he wrote articles on
issues important to Indian Muslims at the time,
and he embarked on a life-long effort to promote
the revival of Islam. His first major book was Jihad
in Islam, a compilation of articles he wrote in 1925
to defend his religion against Hindu and British
critics. During the 1920s Mawdudi supported the
Indian nationalist movement and the khilaFat
movement, a campaign among Muslims in British
India that ended when the caliphate was officially
abolished by the Turkish republic in 1924. He also
supported the Hijra Movement (Tahrik-i Hijrat),
which advocated Muslim emigration from India
as long as it was ruled by non-Muslims, namely,
the British.
Mawdudi moved to Hyderabad (Deccan), one
of the last remaining centers of Muslim political
power, in 1928. Declaring, “In reality I am a new
Muslim,” he soon became what would today be
called an Islamist. The waning power of MuslimK 462 Mawdudi, Abu al-Ala