| Full name | Omar Khalidi |
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| Born | 1953 Hyderabad, India |
| Died | November 29, 2010 Boston, USA |
| Era | Modern era |
| Region | Islamic scholar |
| Main interests | Minority Rights, Military history |
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Dr. Omar Khalidi, BA ALM PhD, (1953 - 29 November 2010), Born in Hyderabad, India. He was an eminent Muslim scholar, a staff member of the MIT, USA and an author. He was educated in India, Britain and the United States. He is referred to as Chronicler of Hyderabad and Champion of Minority Rights.[1] and considered as a international relations builder. His visits to various countries, sponsored by the US State Department, were a part of this effort.[2][3]
The main subjects of his books are minority rights, history, architecture, economics, demography, politics, Urdu education, military history, library science, cataloging ethnic groups and nationalism.[4][5][2] His incisive writings on minority rights inspired the Sachar Committee to seek a community wise census of the Indian armed forces.[2][5] He had also authored several books and articles on Islam in America and mosque architecture.[3][6]
His two books, Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police, and Paramilitary Forces During Communal Riots (2003) and Muslims in Indian Economy (2006), had focused on the institutional discrimination against Muslims in India, creating furor in Indian Parliament in 2006. L.K. Advani had verbally attacked him for allegedly tarnishing the secular credentials of the Indian army and personally held him responsible for the Sachar Committee’s request for a community wide census in India.[2][5]
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Born 1953 in Hyderabad, India. His father Abu Nasr Muhammad Khalidi, was a specialist in the Islamic studies and Urdu literature at Osmania University. Omar Khalidi received his primary education at Madrassa-e-Aaaliyah High School in Hyderabad. He completed his BA in history at the Wichita State University in 1980. In 1991 he received the ALM from the Harvard University and PhD from the University of Wales Lampeter, UK in (1994).[1][5]
In the 1980s he worked at the King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and from there he moved back to USA and became the staff member of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Later in 1983, he joined the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT, Boston and worked there as a librarian until his death in a train accident in Boston, USA.[1][5]
His first scholarly work was The British Residents at the Court of the Nizams of Hyderabad published in 1981. Since then he wrote and edited more than 25 books. The most famous book he edited is Hyderabad: After the Fall published in 1990. The book documents the fall of the Princely state of Hyderabad and its negative impact on the Muslim community. He researched up excerpts from the Pandit Sunderlal Commission Report which for the first time offered a glimpse into what really happened in 1948 as Hyderabad was amalgamated into the Indian union.[1]
Khalidi served as a regional Vice-President of American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin, and was an active participant in the various activities of all other Indian Muslim organizations in the USA and Canada. His articles were published regularly in the MetroWest Daily News and he was an active columnist for various other journals and wrote for the Economic and Political Weekly, The Outlook, India Abroad, Two Circles and for many other print and internet media.[2]
Below are the collection of some of his books.[7][4][3]
| Published Year | Book Name | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | The British Residents at the Court of the Nizams of Hyderabad | Hyderabad Historical Society. |
| 1985 | Hyderabad State Under the Nizams, 1724-1948: A Bibliography of Monographic and Periodical Literature | Hyderabad Historical Society. |
| 1987 | Deccan Under the Sultans, 1296-1724: A Bibliography of Monographic and Periodical Literature | Hyderabad Historical Society. |
| 1988 | African Diaspora in India: The Case of the Habashis of Deccan | Hamdard National Foundation. |
| 1988 | Hyderabad After the Fall | Hyderabad Historical Society. |
| 1990 | Indian Muslims in North America | South Asia Press. |
| 1991 | Factors in Muslim Electability to Lok Sabha | Harvard University Press. |
| 1991 | Memoirs of Cyril Jones: People, Society, and Railways in Hyderabad | Manohar Publications. |
| 1992 | Shama-e-Faroozan: Chand Ilmi Aur Adabi Shakhsiyatoon Ke Halaat-e-Zindagi Aur Karname | Azmi and Sons. |
| 1994 | Memoirs of Sidney Cotton | South Asia Press. |
| 1995 | Islamic Literature in the Deccani Languages: Kannada, Marathi, & Telugu | Hyderabad Historical Society. |
| 1998 | Suqut-e-Hyderabad: Chashm Deed Aur Muasir Tahreeron Par Mushtamil Manzar Aur Pesh Manzar (Edited with Dr. Muinuddin Aqil) | All India Majlis Tameer-e-Millat. |
| 1999 | Romance of the Golconda Diamonds | Mapin Publishing. |
| 1999 | Approaches to Mosque Design in North America | MIT. |
| 1999 | The Architecture and Campus Planning of Osmania University | MIT. |
| 1999 | American Architecture of Islamic Inspiration | MIT. |
| 2003 | A Guide to Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu Manuscript Libraries in India | Middle East Librarians Association. |
| 2003 | Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police, and Paramilitary Forces During Communal Riots | Three Essays Press. |
| 2004 | Between Muslim Nationalists and Nationalist Muslims: Maududi’s Thoughts on Indian Muslims | Institute of Objective Studies. |
| 2004 | The British Residency in Hyderabad: An Outpost of the Raj (1779-1948) | British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia. |
| 2006 | An Indian Passage to Europe: The Travels of Fath Nawaz Jang | Oxford University Press. |
| 2006 | Muslims in the Deccan: A Historical Survey | Global Media Publications. |
| 2006 | Muslims in Indian Economy | Three Essays Collective. |
| 2006 | Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India-2 | Three Essays Collective. |
| 2006 | A Guide to Architecture in Hyderabad, Deccan, India | Three Essays Collective. |
Omar Khalidi died on 29 November 2010, in a train accident at the Kendall Square, MBTA station in Cambridge-Boston,[8][9] as per his family statement published in Arab News on 30 November 2010: Omar Khalidi drove in his car to MIT campus and was probably trying to catch a train to buy medicine at the next station. He was a diabetic, and it seems his sugar level had reached abnormal levels and he was hit by a train[9] in Boston, United States[5] His funeral prayers were held at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury.[8]
He is left by wife Nigar Khalidi, and daughter Aliya.[9]