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Syed Ahmad Khan was born on October 17, 1817. His early education allowed the traditional pattern. In February 1838, he was appointed Naib Munshi in the office of the Divisional Commissioner of Agra, and in 1846 was promoted to Munsif. His famous work "Asarus Sanadeed" was published in 1855. After the war of Independence of 1857, he wrote a pamphlet "Hindustan ke Wafadar Musalman." In 1859, Sir Syed established a school in Murshidabad for Muslim children. During this period he published "Asbab-e-Baghavat-e-Hind", "Ahkam-e-taam-ahle-kitab" as well as several pamphlets to disseminate his ideas on education. In 1864, he founded a school in Ghazipur where Muslim children were taught English in addition to the oriental languages. He established the Scientific Society to create in the Muslims the urge to acquire modern knowledge. In 1864, Sir Syed was transferred to Aligarh and the office of the Scientific Society too was consequently relocated. In Aligarh, he began to publish the Scientific Society Magazine which was later renamed Aligarh Institute Gazette. Sir Syed went to England in 1869 where he lived for some time and worked on his famous rejoinder to Thomas More published as "Ummahat-ul-Ummah". Upon his return he began to campaign for a Muslim University. He also assisted in the work of the Hunter Commission on Education and was successful in having his education policy for Muslims accepted. The greatest achievement of Sir Syed Khan was the establishment of Aligarh Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1898 which subsequently developed into Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. This great leader of Muslims, after dedicating his whole life to the service of Muslims, died on March 27, 1898 and was buried beside the mosque in the great seat of learning, which he had founded.
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