| Taifoor, Syed Muhammed
(1885-1972) author, antiquarian, historian. Syed Muhammed Taifoor
was born on 3 June 1885 in Dhaka. His father Syed Abdul Aziz and grandfather
Mir Gholam Mustafa al-Hosieny were zamindars at sonargaon.
Taifoor claimed his descent from the famous saint of Sonargaon, ibrahim
danishmand. He was educated at Madrasas in Dhaka and Calcutta
and was well versed in Bangla, English, Urdu and Persian languages. In
1909 he joined the government service as a Sub Registrar and worked all
over what is now Bangladesh and eventually retired as Registrar of Calcutta
in 1942. In 1941 the British Government bestowed the title of 'Khan Shaheb'
on him. In 1947 during the anti-British movement he renounced this title
in protest.
Among the Dhaka elite he was considered a very learned man and
he held a variety of posts during his lifetime including member
Director of Eden College, member of the Dhaka Secondary and Intermediate
Board, Director of Jagannath College and member of Dhaka Improvement
Trust. He was closely associated with the Dhaka Museum since its
beginning and was a member of the museum's Trustee Board. He donated
a number of his collections to the museum: 209 ancient and Mughal
coins, artefacts and armoury from eastern India.
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Syed Muhammed Taifoor |
In addition he donated rare books, and Arabic and Persian
manuscripts to the asiatic
society of Pakistan (now Bangladesh), of which he was a founder
member.
In 1952 SM Taifoor published his Glimpses of Old Dhaka,
a seminal treatise on the historical evolution of the city. He was a major
proponent of using the spelling Dhaka (vis-a-vis Dacca), which
was finally accepted only in 1982, years after his death.
He was a pioneer of women's education and rights. He
actively encouraged his three daughters Lulu Bilquis Banu, leila
arjumand banu and Malka Perveen Banu to undertake higher education
and participate in public in cultural activities very unusual at a time
when women were kept in strict seclusion.
His wife Sara Taifoor shared his beliefs in the need
for women's emancipation. She was in her own right a prominent social
worker, author and was decorated with the Kaiser-e-Hind Medal by
the pre-partition British Government. SM Taifoor died in Dhaka at the
age of 87 on 25 February 1972. [Shahnaz Huda] |
