Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb
Born21 October 1933
Died20 January 2021(2021-01-20) (aged 87)
London
AwardsNawab Faizullah Khan Award
Academic background
Alma materOsmania University, Aligarh Muslim University, Deccan College

Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb (M.Z.A. Shakeb) (21 October 1933 – 20 January 2021) was a historian of the Deccan, art connoisseur, Sufi Intellectual, and Urdu and Persian literary critic.[1]

Early life and education

Born on 21 October 1933, Shakeb grew up in Hyderabad and Aurangabad. He received a BA in Political Science from the Osmania University, and an MA from Aligarh Muslim University in 1956. He completed his doctorate in Relations of Golkonda with Iran from Deccan College in 1976.[2]

Career

Together with Vasanth Kumar Bawa, Shakeb set up the first-ever Hyderabad Urban Development Authority which is now referred to as Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.[3] In 1962, he was appointed an archivist at the State Archives of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad.[3] Whilst here he created the Mughal Record Room. His publications include Mughal Archives Vol I: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Documents Pertaining to the Reign of Shah Jahan, in 1977 which remains critical reading for those seeking to learn how to read administrative documents in Indo-Persian.[4] He went on to write many publications for The British Library, State Archives Andhra Pradesh, and other repositories, universities, and auction houses.[2]

From 1980 to 1987, Shakeb taught Indian history and the history of Indo-Islamic art and culture in the Department of Indology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.[5][6] He, later on, worked as a consultant for Christie's in their department of Islamic and Indian Art as their leading expert on Persian and Arabic manuscripts for 30 years.[5][3][6]

He also continued to work on Indo-Persian manuscripts and Mughal documents and catalogued such manuscripts in the British Library, such as the Batala Collection of Mughal Documents 1527-1757 in 1990.[4][2] Throughout this time he supervised many doctoral researchers in the fields of Mughal history, Deccan studies and Urdu and Persian literature.[7][2]

Shakeb was also the Director of Urdu teachers training at Middlesex University up until 1998.[4]

He also played a key role in setting up the Haroon Khan Sherwani Center for Deccan Studies at Maulana Azad National Urdu University and had been a member of the center's first advisory board. He was considered a pioneer, having helped lay the foundations of Deccan Studies.[8][9]

Shakeb was an authority on various poets from the Indian subcontinent and Persia, writing books and organising and speaking at conferences on Bedil, Amir Khusrau, Iqbal, Ghalib , and Rumi.[2]

Death

Shakeb died in London on 20 January 2021, aged 87.[10] He is survived by his wife, Farhat Ahmed, two daughters, a son, and nine grandchildren.[2][11][9]

Awards and Recognitions

Selected publications

  • Relations of Golkonda with Iran c.1518-1687: Diplomacy, Ideas, and Commerce Ideas[7] (New Delhi: Primus Books, 2017)
  • Mughal Archives: A Descriptive Catalogue of the documents about the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-1658), Vol 1. Durbar papers and a miscellany of singular documents[15] (Andhra Pradesh: State Archives, 1977)
  • A Descriptive catalog of the Batala collection of Mughal documents, 1527-1757 AD. (United Kingdom: British Library, 1990)[16]
  • A descriptive catalogue of Persian letters from Arcot and Baroda[17] (United Kingdom: India Office Library and Records, British Library, 1982).
  • Ghalib and Zuka, (New Delhi; Ghalib Academy, 1974)[18]
  • Ghalib on Hyderabad[19] (Hyderabad, Adami Trust, 1969)

References

  1. ↑ "Sufi intellectual Zia Shakeb will be missed in India and abroad". 26 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Mohammed Shakeb: Preserver of Mughal Archival Documents and Reconstructor of Libraries". The Wire.
  3. 1 2 3 "Zia Shakeb is no more; he was a renowned litterateur, historian and authority on art - NewsDeal". Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb (M.Z.A. Shakeb) (1933-2021) | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk.
  5. 1 2 "'Deccani roots truly secular' | Hyderabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. 20 January 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Progressive seeker on Sufi path". The Hindu. 24 March 2007 – via www.thehindu.com.
  7. 1 2 Dayal, Subah. "Introduction" to Relations of Golkonda with Iran, 1518 - 1687 by M.Z.A. Shakeb – via www.academia.edu.
  8. ↑ "ماہر اقبالیات و دکنیات ڈاکٹر ضیا الدین احمد شکیب کا لندن میں انتقال". 20 January 2021.
  9. 1 2 Ahmed, Mahamid (7 March 2021). "Ziauddin Shakeb obituary". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ "Zia Shakeb is no more; he was a renowned litterateur, historian and authority on art". Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  11. ↑ "Zia Shakeb is no more; he was a renowned litterateur, historian and authority on art". 20 January 2021.
  12. ↑ "Annual report" (PDF). www.indiaculture.nic.in. 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "centre for deccan studies - Maulana Azad National Urdu University". yumpu.com.
  14. ↑ "List of Fellows". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 117 (2): 1–38. 30 April 1985. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00139024. S2CID 119491063 – via Cambridge University Press.
  15. ↑ Mughal archives: a descriptive catalogue of the documents pertaining to the reign of Shah Jahan, 1628-1658. State Archives, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. 9 February 1977 – via Hathi Trust.
  16. ↑ A descriptive catalogue of the Batala collection of Mughal documents, 1527-1757 AD. British Library. 10 February 1990 – via University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Catalog.
  17. ↑ "Notes: A descriptive catalogue of Persian letters from Arcot and Baroda". library.soas.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  18. ↑ "Ghalib Aur Zuka by Ziyauddin Ahmad Shakeb". Rekhta.
  19. ↑ "Ghalib Aur Hyderabad". 9 February 1969 – via Internet Archive.
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