Tahir Jalaluddin

Muhammad Tahir Jalaluddin (8 December 1869 – 26 October 1956) was a Minangkabau scholar of Islamic astronomy who became one of the leading reformist ulama of the Malay world. He studied in Mecca under his cousin Ahmad Khatib al-Minangkabawi and at al-Azhar in Cairo, settled in Malaya, co-founded the journal Al-Imam in Singapore with Syed Sheikh al-Hadi, and wrote the standard Malay works on the Hijri calendar, prayer times and the direction of prayer. ^{1 2}

He was born at Ampek Angkek in Agam, West Sumatra; the Malay article pairs his birth with 5 Ramadan 1286 AH and the Indonesian article with 4 Ramadan of the same year. His father, Sheikh Muhammad, was a noted Sumatran scholar. Orphaned young, he was sent to Mecca at about the age of twelve and studied there for more than twelve years. The Malay article names his teacher as his cousin Sheikh Ahmad Khatib al-Minangkabawi, then mufti of the Shafi'i school at the Grand Mosque, and this record accordingly carries a student_of relation to Ahmad Khatib's record. The Indonesian article names his other Meccan teachers and records that, after four years at al-Azhar in Cairo (1893–1897), where the thought of al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh influenced him, Tahir returned to Mecca and helped Ahmad Khatib teach, above all astronomy. ^{2 3}

In Malaya he was known as a leading figure of the Kaum Muda, the reformist current that opposed the Kaum Tua traditionalists. In 1906 he founded the journal Al-Imam in Singapore with Syed Sheikh al-Hadi and others; modelled on Rashid Rida's al-Manar, it ran until 1908 and was the first Islamic mass medium in the archipelago's press history. He also contributed to al-Ikhwan, Saudara and other reformist periodicals. ^{1 3}

The Malay article records that he served as chief judge of the sharia court at Taiping and for three years as Mufti of Perak under Sultan Idris Shah I, whose fatwas of Tahir's the Kaum Tua rejected; the Indonesian article adds that the sultan appointed him in 1900 to the Perak council of notables and ulama, charged him with correcting the qibla of the state's mosques, and took him to London for the coronation of George V in 1911. He worked in Johor as a teacher and inspector of religious schools (1914–1916 on the Malay article's dating; the Indonesian article gives 1914–1916 and 1925–1928 in the Malay reckoning), taught at Madrasah al-Mashoor in Penang (1920–1923), and retired to Kuala Kangsar in 1929, teaching and writing until his death. In 1927 the Dutch imprisoned him for six months in Sumatra on a charge the Malay article calls false. ^{2 3}

His standing rests on Islamic astronomy (falak). His Natijatul'Umur (1936) works out the Hijri calendar and its Gregorian equivalents, the qibla direction and prayer times for all times; his Kitab Jadual Pati Kiraan (1941) gives logarithms for computing prayer times and the qibla. He was a prominent advocate of hisab, determining the start of Ramadan by astronomical calculation rather than by sighting the moon, a position that brought him into conflict with traditional scholars in Minangkabau and Malaya. Penang's Sheikh Tahir Astronomical Centre is named for him. ^{1 3}

No source consulted names his own school of law. The articles present him as a Kaum Muda reformist formed by al-Afghani and Abduh, which is a movement, not a madhhab; the Indonesian article's category filings place him under the Shafi'i school, but filings are not attestations, and a teacher's school is not the student's. Wikidata gives his religion as Islam in general. His record therefore carries his faith as unknown, flagged for the founder, with the evidence set out in the record's faith note. ^{2 3 4}

He died on 26 October 1956 and was buried at the Jalan Baru cemetery in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, where his grave has been declared a historic tomb. The Indonesian article pairs the death with 22 Rabi' al-awwal 1376 AH; the Malay article's pairing (21 Rabi' al-awwal 1377) conflicts in the Hijri year, and the Indonesian pairing is followed. His son Hamdan became governor of Penang (1989–2001). ^{2 3 1}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• No Arabic or Urdu Wikipedia article exists for him; the Arabic and Urdu versions of this page are written from the English, Malay and Indonesian articles and the Wikidata item cited above.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.