Ismail Hossain Siraji

Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji (Bengali: সৈয়দ ইসমাইল হোসেন সিরাজী; 1880–1931) was a Bengali author and poet from Sirajganj in present-day Bangladesh. He is considered to be one of the key authors of period of the Bengali Muslim reawakening; encouraging education and glorifying the Islamic heritage. He also contributed greatly to introducing the Khilafat Movement in Bengal, and provided medical supplies to the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. Anal-Prabaha, his first poetry book, was banned by the government and he was subsequently imprisoned as the first South Asian poet to allegedly call for independence against the British Raj. The government issued Section 144 against him 82 times in his lifetime. Syed Ismail Hossain was born on 13 July 1880 to a Bengali Muslim family of Syed extraction in Sirajganj, Pabna District, Bengal Presidency. His ancestor, Syed Ali Azam, migrated from the city of Shiraz in Iran to Bengal and received honour in the Mughal court. Syed Ali Azam initially settled in Amlabari, Nadia and many of his descendants were practitioners of Unani medicine. Siraji's father, Moulvi Syed Abdul Karim Khandakar (1856-1924), was a police sub-inspector and Unani practitioner. His mother, Nur Jahan Khanom, was of Pashtun ancestry. The suffix Siraji was added to the end of his pen name in honour of his home district. As a young boy, Ismail Hossain Siraji learnt Arabic and Persian in the local primary school, before going on to study at the Jnanadayini Minor English School. As his family was not well-off, Siraji could not afford to go to college. Nevertheless, Siraji studied Sanskrit grammar, literature and dictionaries at home. He also read the works of Indian Muslim writers like Shibli Nomani and Muhammad Iqbal, whom he was greatly influenced by. Siraji was a writer by profession, who later immersed himself in the politics of Bengal and reawakening Bengali Muslim society, which had fallen behind as a result of colonial rule. Gaining a renowned reputation as an orator, Siraji advocated for Hindu–Muslim unity in addition to Muslim interests. At the age of nineteen, he published Anal-Prabaha (1899), his first book of poetry. During the Partition of Bengal in 1905, he called on Muslims to join the anti-Partition agitation. A second edition of his first book was published in 1908, and allegations of rebellion were charged against him. The book was banned by the government and he was subsequently imprisoned in March 1910 as the first South Asian poet to allegedly for independence against the British Raj.