Screening Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān’s Library 185
of the British administration.^75 One of Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s “agents” was
Dhū al-Fiqār Aḥmad Bhøpālī (d. 1922),^76 who was also linked to the
Yemenite tradition of al-Shawkānī. He worked as a corrector in the
local printing presses and wrote several books supporting the Ahl-i
Ḥadīth. His major work was a continuation of Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s Koranic
exegesis, Tarjumān al-Qurʾān (Interpreter of the Koran), which was
published in 17 volumes. Whereas volume one to six and 16 to 17 were
clearly written by Ṣiddīq Ḥasan himself, volume 14 and 15 were pub-
lished under Dhū al-Fiqār’s name. According to some of the prefaces
and eulogies (taqārīẓ) in the books, Dhū al-Fiqār also copied and cor-
rected several of Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s works.^77 Many of the books brought
to Bhopal by the “agents” were freely distributed in the local madra-
sas. Following al-Shawkānī, it was Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s aim to educate inde-
pendent legal scholars and to propagate the idea of ijtihād as conceptu-
alised by the Ahl-i Ḥadīth. Here, Ṣiddīq Ḥasan relied on al-Shawkānī’s
book Adab al-ṭalab (Refinement for the Quest of Knowledge).^78
Some years after his marriage to Shāh Jahān Bēgum in 1871, Ṣiddīq
Ḥasan published his work Silsilat al-ʿasjad fī dhikr mashāʾikh al-sanad
in Bhopal. This was also based on a book written by al-Shawkānī, his
Itḥāf al-dafātir (Presenting of the Register). Here, again, al-Shawkānī
listed all the books he recommended for the education of independent
legal scholars. In Silsilat al-ʿasjad, Ṣiddīq Ḥasan gave a detailed chain of
transmission, linking him personally to the Prophet Muḥammad^79 rein-
forcing his authority and the authentic transmission of the disciplines
75 Unfortunately, the sources do not tell us very much about Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s con-
tacts to the British administration and his abilities in speaking or writing Eng-
lish.
76 For a biography, see Ḥasanī, Nuzhat al-khawāṭir, vol. 8, p. 140.
77 Ṣiddiq Ḥasan Khān, Muḥammad: Qurrat al-aʿyān wa-masarrāt al-ādhān fī
maʾāthir al-malik al-jalīl al-Nawwāb Muḥammad Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān (Conso-
lation of the Eyes and Pleasures of the Ears in the Works of the Exalted King,
the Nawwāb Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān), Constantinople 1298/1881, p. 100.
78 Al-Shawkānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī: Adab al-ṭalab wa-muntahā al-arab (Refine-
ment for the Quest of Knowledge and the Ultimate Goal), Sanaa 1419/1998,
pp. 195–204. This book was later abridged and commentated by ʿAbd al-Ṣamad
Peshāwārī’s (d. 1880) as Ṭalab al-arab min Adab al-ṭalab (Reaching out for the
Goal to Refine the Quest for Knowledge), Bhopal 1878. Peshāwārī was former-
ly a fierce supporter of the Ḥanafī madhhab. When he heard about the Hadith
studies in Bhopal, he travelled there from his hometown, Peshawar. He worked
for several printing projects in Bhopal until his death.
79 Ṣiddiq Ḥasan Khān, Muḥammad: Silsilat al-asjad fī dhikr mashāʾikh al-sanad,
Bhopal: 1293/ 1876, pp. 2–8.
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