Mirza Muhammad Ismail

Mirza Muhammad Ismail Qandahari (c 1813–1912), usually known as Mirza Muhammad Ismail, was an Afghan religious scholar and the first convert to the Ahmadiyya faith among the Pashtons of the North West Frontier Province of India.

He was an ethnic Turk, born about 1813 at Qandahar, Afghanistan. His father was a Qazi in the city of Qandahar, as well as being a some-time minister during the reign of Shah Shujah Durrani (1785-1842), King of Afghanistan. He was a scholar of Arabic, Persian and Pashto, a good poet and a calligrapher. He converted to Ahmadiyya Islam in response to a vision in 1887.

Ismail died on September 18, 1912, at Peshawar.

Early life Ismail was born in the house of a renowned religious scholar, a Qazi, in the city of Qandahar.

Raised speaking Pashto, he became a scholar of Arabic, Persian and his native language, as well as being an Islamic jurist who was able to assist his father in his profession as a Qazi. According to his biographer, Qazi Muhammad Yousaf, he never married

Migration to India At the age of 32, Ismail left Afghanistan and traveled to India. Leaving Qandahar, he passed through Chaman, Pashin, Quetta, Sibi, Shikarpur and Sind. He stayed in these places and continued his intellectual pursuits. Qazi Muhammad Yousaf has recorded his discussion of Shia and Sunni differences with a scholar at Shikarpur. He ended his journey in Bombay, where he was appointed tutor in Pashto and Persian to Captain Henry George Raverty of the 3rd Bombay Native Infantry, accompanying him on military campaigns, and ending up in Peshawar in 1852.

Tutor to H G Raverty Henry George Raverty makes clear reference to Ismail's contribution to his various works. In the introduction to Raverty's 'Dictionary of the Pashto Language' he writes:

"“During the whole time I had the valuable assistance of a Molawi of the Ghalzi tribe, located in central Afghanistan in the District around Khelat-iGhalzi, and whose father was for some time Kazi of the city of Kandahar, in which office the Molawi, who is better acquainted with Pashto both theoretically and practically, than any other man I ever saw or heard of, assisted. His profound knowledge of Arabic—the foundation of all Muhammadan languages—and without which the situation of Kazi, in the western Capital of Afghanistan, could not have been held, together with the fact of his possessing no mean poetical powers, rendered him peculiarly fitted for a task of this kind, in which many works had to be examined and collated.”

A similar comment about Ismail is found in Raverty's 'Preface' to the Grammar of the Afghan language, Pakhtu.

Educational Services In 1852, Mirza Muhammad Ismail was appointed District Inspector of Schools in the Peshawar and Hazara districts to look after the newly established schooling system in this region. He served in this position until his retirement in 1884. He travelled widely in the region to inspect schools in the villages of the North West Frontier.

Molvi Muhammad Ismail made a contribution to Pashto literature and to the learning of Pashto as a foreign language, publishing handbooks such as Pashto Tutor, Khazana-i-Afghani, Sawal-o-Jawa and Pushto Guide. Tariq Rahman writes:

"One of the first such books was Tutor to Pushto and it was published in 1896 by Moulvi Ismail Khan as ‘a perfect help to the lower and higher standard Pashto examination’ (Khan 1896). Khan, Ismail. 1896. Tutor to Pushto: With English, Urdu and Persian Translation and Pronunciation in Roman...."

While in Peshawar, Ismail was requested by T.P. Hughes and Worthington Jukes to translate parts of the Bible into Pashto. This translation work assisted his understanding the works of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his claims.

Death Muhammad Ismail lived in Peshawar from 1852 to 1912, dying on September 18, 1912.