Remembering the Man of Letters

Muhammad Shahidullah

Muhammad Shahidullah was a famous Bengali educationist, philologist, linguist, writer and religious scholar. Venerated as Gyantaposh, Shahidullah conducted fundamental research on the origin of Bengali language. We pay homage to this great scholar on his 45th death anniversary.

Muhammad Shahidullah was born in village Peyara, West Bengal, India on 10th July, 1885
He father Mofizuddin was a warden of a religious shrine
During his school life Shahidullah learnt to speak, read and write in Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and English fluently
Shahidullah completed his graduation on Sanskrit and obtained Master degree on comparative philology from the University of Calcutta

After completing his doctorate Shahidullah returned home and started teaching
In 1937 he became the head of Bangla department of the University of Dhaka
Shahidullah first established the reasons why Bengali should be the state language of Pakistan
He was also a great collector of folk literature and worked under Dinesh Chandra Sen

Muhammad Shahidullah joined the University of Dhaka on 1921 as a lecturer of Bengali and Sanskrit
Shahidullah studied Vedic Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Tibetan and ancient Persian language at Freiburg University in Germany
Shahidullah received his doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1928 for his research on the dialects of Charyapada
He was the first Indian Muslim to receive the Doctorate degree

Shahidullah was the editor of Urdu Dictionary Project (1959-60), Encyclopaedia of Islam Project (1960-64) and the chairman of Bangla Academy
Shahidullah translated the works of Hafiz, Omar Khayyiam, Buddhist mystic songs and Charyapada into Bengali
He published dictionary of regional dialects a noteworthy work on Bengali language
He authored many books for children mainly the folktales and traditional fairy tales of Bengal

Shahidullah was awarded 'Knight of the Orders of Art and Letters' by the French Government (1967)
Shahidullah represented UNESCO at the International Seminar on Traditional Culture in South East Asia and was elected its Chairman
Murataza Baseer, a son of Shahidullah is considered as one of the most famous Bangladeshi painters
Muhammad Shahidullah passed away in Dhaka on 13th July, 1969