Zakaullah of Dehli

Maulvi Mohammad Zakaullah, or Munshi Zakaullah (20 April 1832 – 7 November 1910), was an Urdu writer and translator from British India who wrote Tarikh-e-Hindustan, a fourteen-volume compilation of Indian history in Urdu. ¹ The Urdu article gives his birth as 1 April 1832, a variant recorded in the entity data, where the English article's date, agreeing with Wikidata, is followed. ^{2 3}

Zakaullah was born on 20 April 1832 in Delhi; his father Mohammad Sanaullah was the tutor of one of the princes in the Mughal courts. ¹ He began his studies under his grandfather Hafiz Mohammad Barkatullah and was educated at Delhi College under Professor Ramchandra, a distinguished teacher of mathematics. ¹ His other teachers included Mamluk Ali Nanautawi. ¹

He started his service as a scholar at Delhi College and continued in the education department until he was 55. ¹ At Delhi College he headed the Vernacular Translation Society, translating texts in Western sciences, history and philosophy into Urdu. ¹ In 1855 he was appointed Deputy Inspector of Schools of Bulandshahr and Moradabad, in 1866 headmaster of the Normal School in Delhi, and in 1872 professor of vernacular literature and science at Muir Central College, Allahabad. ¹ He retired on pension from Allahabad in 1877, and shortly before his retirement was awarded the titles Khan Bahadur and Shams-ul-Ulema. ¹ After retiring he spent time in Aligarh working for Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's literary movement, was an early supporter of the Aligarh Movement, and translated works for the Scientific Society alongside his contemporaries Maulvi Nazir Ahmad and Altaf Hussain Hali. ¹

The works listed in the article include Aain-e-Qaisari, Iqbalnama-e-Akabari, Mahasin-ul-Akhlaq, Makarim-ul-Akhlaq, Musalman Aur Science, his autobiography Sawaneh Umari, and the fourteen-volume Tareekh-e-Hindustan. ¹

Zakaullah died on 7 November 1910 at Delhi, aged 78, survived by his son Inayatullah Dehlvi, also an Urdu writer and translator. ¹

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.