Syed Mahmood
Hon'ble Puisne Judge Syed Mahmood | |
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Puisne Judge of Allahabad High Court | |
| In office 1887–1893 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 May 1850 Syed Ahmed Khan |
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Justice Syed Mahmood (also spelled Sayyid Mahmud; 24 May 1850 – 8 May 1903) was
He was the first Indian jurist to be appointed to High Court at
As a jurist, his judgments dominate the
Education
Syed Mahmood was born in Delhi on 24 May 1850, the second son of Syed Ahmad Khan. He subsequently studied in Moradabad, and Aligarh, all cities to which his father had been posted as a member of the Indian Civil Service. He also studied at the Government College in Delhi and at Queen's College in Benares before passing his Matriculation Examination at the University of Calcutta in 1868. He then received a scholarship from the British government in India to study in England.[1]
In 1869, Mahmood was admitted to Lincoln's Inn and in April 1872 he was called to the Bar. Around the same time, from 1870, he studied Latin, Greek and oriental languages for two years at Christ's College, Cambridge but without graduating.[2][3]
Legal career
After returning to India, Mahmood enrolled as a barrister in the High Court in Allahabad in 1872, the first Indian to achieve that distinction in that court. He worked as a barrister in Allahabad until 1878. The following year he was appointed as a District and Sessions Judge in
In 1882, Syed Mahmood received his first officiating appointment as a judge to the High Court of the North-Western Provinces in Allahabad, with active lobbying on his behalf by the Viceroy who had replaced Lytton,
After his retirement from the judiciary, he returned to his legal practice as a barrister, working in Lucknow as well as serving on the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Legislative Council from 1896 to 1898.
Educational work
Shortly after returning to India after his studies in England in 1872, Syed Mahmood wrote a proposal for the establishment of a self-supporting Muslim college in India based on the model he had experienced at Cambridge University.[9] He then assisted his father, Sir Syed, in founding the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, and continued to play a vital role in its administration even while working as a lawyer and judge in Allahabad. In 1883, he returned to England to recruit Theodore Beck to serve as the school's principal. He took an active part in teaching English classes and establishing a law program at the school, donating a major portion of his own collection of legal texts to form a legal library.[10] In 1889, his father nominated Mahmood as Joint Secretary of the board of trustees for the school. After his father's death in 1898, he took up his responsibilities as Life Honorary Joint Secretary. The following year he was replaced in this position by Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, and was elevated to the post of Honorary President instead.
Syed Mahmood was active in educational ventures outside of the MAOC as well. During the Ripon administration, he was appointed as one of the commissioners of the 1882 Education Commission, investigating the state of education in India. He was also an active participant in the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference, delivering a series of lectures on the history of English education in India during the annual meetings of 1893 and 1894.
Family
In 1888, Syed Mahmood married Musharraf Jahan, the daughter of Nawab Khwajah Sharfuddin Ahmad, his father's maternal cousin. They had one son Ross Masood. Mahmood purchased a home in Allahabad which was subsequently sold to Motilal Nehru who was also serving as a barrister in the Allahabad court at that time, and which was eventually renamed Swaraj Bhavan.[11][12] Earlier in 1876, Syed Mahmood had established another residence in the city of Aligarh; this currently houses the Sir Syed Academy. In 1900, after becoming estranged from both his family and the college at Aligarh, Mahmood moved to Sitapur where he lived with his cousin, Syed Muhammad Ahmad, until his death in 1903.
Writings
Syed Mahmood's first contribution to the legal literature of British India was an Urdu translation of the 1872 Law of Evidence and subsequent amendments, published in 1876. He revised his lectures to the Muhammadan Educational Conference and published them in English as A History of English Education in India in 1895.[13] He also contributed articles to the Aligarh Institute Gazette and the Calcutta Review. But his major written contribution consisted of the approximately 300 legal judgments recorded in the Indian Law Reports: Allahabad Series between the years 1882 and 1892, a considerable number of which were over twenty pages in length. Contemporaries note that he was preparing a multi-volume work on Muslim law after his retirement from the bench, but this remained uncompleted at the time of his death.
Notes
- ^ Guenther 2004, p. 41-42.
- ^ "Mahmood, Syed Mohammad (MHMT870SM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d Kozlowski 2008, p. 118-119.
- ^ Guenther 2004, p. 73-80.
- ^ Guenther 2004, p.80-81.
- ^ Stokes 1887, p. xxviii.
- ^ Sapru 1903, p. 451.
- ^ Guenther 2004, p. 160-162.
- ^ Husain, Yusuf 1967, p. 222-237.
- ^ Guenther 2004, p. 101-103.
- ^ Lelyveld 2004.
- ^ "The Little Magazine - Ghosts - David Lelyveld - The mystery mansion". www.littlemag.com. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ Mahmood 1895.
References
- Banerji, Satish Chandra. "Syed Mahmood: Recollections and Impressions," The Hindustan Review and Kayastha Samachar n.s. 7, no. 3 (1903): 439–443.
- Guenther, Alan M. "Syed Mahmood and the Transformation of Muslim Law in British India." Ph.D. Dissertation, McGill University, 2004.
- Hidayatullah, M. "Justice Syed Mahmood," in A Judge's Miscellany. Bombay: N. M. Tripathi, 1972.
- Husain, Iqbal, ed. Justice Syed Mahmood Papers. Aligarh: Sir Syed Academy, Aligarh Muslim University, 2005.
- Husain, Yusuf, ed. Selected Documents from the Aligarh Archives Bombay: Asia Publishing House for the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, 1967.
- Kozlowski, Gregory C. Muslim Endowments and Society in British India. (Reprint ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780521088671
- Lelyveld, David. Aligarh's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
- Lelyveld, David. "The Mystery Mansion: Swaraj Bhavan and the Myths of Patriotic Nationalism," The Little Magazine4, no. 4, "Ghosts" 2004.
- Mahmood, Syed. A History of English Education in India: Its Rise, Development, Progress, Present Condition and Prospects. Aligarh: M.A.-O.College, 1895.
- "Mahmood Number" Aligarh Law Journal 5 (1973).
- Sapru, Tej Bahadur. "Syed Mahmood, as a Judge," The Hindustan Review and Kayastha Samachar n.s. 7, no. 3 (1903): 443–452.
- Stokes, Whitley. The Anglo-Indian Codes, vol. 1, Substantive Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1887.
- Uttar Pradesh (India). High Court of Judicature. Centenary: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, 1866–1966, 2 vols. Allahabad: Allahabad High Court Centenary Commemoration Volume Committee, 1966.
External links
- "The Mystery Mansion" by David Lelyveld
- Justice Mahmood – A Tribute by Pt. K.L. Misra, Advocate General U.P., India
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