Muhammad Hamidullah

Who was Muhammad Hamidullah?

Muhammad Hamidullah, D. Phil., D. Litt., HI, was a Muhaddith, Faqih, scholar of Islamic law and an academic author with over 450 books cited in WorldCat.org, the world's largest bibliographic database. He earned two doctorates; he received his first doctorate from Bonn University, Germany and later his Doctor of Letters from Sorbonne University, France. A prolific writer, his extensive works on Islamic science, history and culture have been published in several languages and many thousands of articles in learned journals. His scholarship is regarded by many as unparalleled in the last century. A polymath, he was fluent in 22 languages including Urdu, Persian, Arabic, French, English, German, Turkish etc. He learned Thai at the age of 84.

Hamidullah was from the Deccan area of British India and was born in Hyderabad, capital city of then Hyderabad State, and hails from a family of scholars. The youngest amongst three brothers and five sisters, His ancestral roots belong to the Nawayath community, his ancestors belonging to the famed Meccan tribe, the Bani' Hashim, some of whom migrated to India, settling first in Madras few centuries ago and were eminent scholars in their own right.