| Key figures | |
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Qasim Nanotvi · Rashid Gangohi |
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| Notable Institutions | |
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Darul Uloom Deoband, India |
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| Movements | |
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Tablighi Jamaat |
Maulana Anwar Shah Al Lolabi Kashmiri (November 26, 1875 - May 28, 1933) was an Indian scholar of Islam. During his career, he taught at a number of prominent institutions, including the Darul Uloom Deoband which contains a gate named at his honor.[1] He authored a numbers books on Islam, which were published in Arabic and Persian.
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A native of Kashmir, Shah was born on 26 November 1875.[2] Raised in the Muslim faith, he left his family in 1887 and moved into the Madrasah in Hazara, Pakistan. In 1889, he relocated to Deoband, where he studied at the Darul uloom.[3] Since the Darul Uloom Deoband had no boarding facilities for students at the time, he resided in the Masjid Qaa mosque nearby, caretaking for his board. In 1894, he began studying Hadith, work he continued after graduation from the Darul uloom in Ghanghohi.
In 1908, Shah married a woman of Ghanghoh.[4] The couple had three sons and two daughters.[5]
In 1933, Shah became ill and traveled to Deoband for medical care.[6] He continued addressing students there until the day he died, 28 May 1933.[5] On his request, his wife purchased an orchard which he had previously enjoyed visiting, and he was buried in a graveyard erected there. Subsequently, a room was constructed to house the cemetery's caretaker; untrue rumors have spread that the room was a studying place for Shah in his youth.
He began his career teaching at Madrasah Aminiyah in Delhi in 1897 before returning to Kashmir upon the death of his mother in 1901.[7] There, he taught at the Madrasah Fay'm for three years before embarking on his Hajj to Mecca and Medina.[4] The pilgrimage so inspired him that he determined to remain in Medina, but first determined to visit his Deoband instructor Mawlana Mahmood Hasan, who persuaded him to take a position teaching in Deoband. When Mawlana Mahmood Hasan himself subsequently relocated to Medin in 1908, Shah was given his position teaching Hadith and became so known throughout India that he was respectfully dubbed Shaykh al-Hadith. For a time, he was head teacher of the school.[1] He retained the position until 1927, when he departed along with many other teachers due to disagreement with management.[6] Like some of the other expelled scholars, Shah felt that the school should focus primarily on religious education, remaining separate from the anti-colonial movement.[1] After departing Deoband, Shah moved on to teach Hadith at the Madrash of Dabhel, drawing students internationally to that institution.
In 1929, the Majlis-i-Ὶlm educational academy was opened in Delhi primarily to publish Shah's writings on Islam.[2] It remained operational until 1946. Among other topics, his books discussed Qur'an, metaphysics, the fundamental beliefs of Islam, Fiqh, zoology, politics. Shah also wrote poetry and often put his scholarly writings in that form.[8] In addition to those works published in his lifetime and after, there were as of 2007 a number of articles and bookm manuscripts which had not yet seen print.[9]