Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy

Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy (, ; 1832 – 9 February 1885) was a Bengali Islamic scholar, educationist and writer from Midnapore. He is regarded as the Father of modern Islamic education in Bengal and was awarded with the title of Bahr ul Ulum, meaning: sea of knowledge by the British.

Early life Suhrawardy was born in 1832, in the village of Chitwa in Midnapore district, Bengal Presidency. He belonged to the noble Bengali Muslim Suhrawardy family who had arrived to Hussain Shahi Sultanate of Bengal in the 15th century, and were bestowed with the Jaagirdaari of Ghoramara. Suhrawardy was a direct descendant of the Sufi author Shihab al-Din 'Umar al-Suhrawardi, who was in turn a descendant of Abu Bakr, the first Rashidun caliph.

Suhrawardy's father, Shah Aminuddin Suhrawardy, was the final Pir of the Suhrawardy family and is buried in a mazar in Hooghly. Two of his brothers were lawyers and subordinate judges (the highest rank available under British rule at the time). His siblings were Ruhul Amin Suhrawardy, Maulvi Mubarak Ali Suhrawardy (alias Mohammad Ali), Abdul Ali Suhrawardy and Umme Kulsum Suhrawardy.

Education Suhrawardy was homeschooled, and educated in Islamic studies, Arabic and Persian. He also learnt English. Suhrawardy graduated from Calcutta Alia Madrasa in 1857 during the Sepoy mutiny.

Career Ubaidullah first job was working as an aide to Prince Jalaluddin, the grandson of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, in Kolkata. After which he worked as the Scrivener at the Legislative Council, part of the office of the Viceroy of India. In 1865, he joined the Hooghly Mohsin College and taught Anglo-Arabic. One of his student was Syed Ameer Ali. In 1874, he was appointed the first superintendent of Dhaka Madrassah.

Ubaidullah was a follower of Nawab Abdul Latif and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He was affiliated with the Mohammedan Literary Society (1863), Central National Mohammedan Association (1877), Bengal Social Science Association and other organisations in Calcutta. He was also a member of the managing committee of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh (1875).

Ubaidullah wrote books in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English and translated many works. Noted among his works are Grammar of Arabic Language, Urdu Diwan (Urdu poems, 1880), Farsi Dewan (Persian poems, 1886), Dastar-e-Parsi Amuz (Persian grammar), Lubbul Arab (Arabic grammar), Miftahul Adab (Urdu grammar), Dabistan-i-Danish Amuz (Urdu, physics), Dastar-e-Farsi Amuz (Persian, rhythm and rhetorics), Dastan-i-Ibratbar (Persian, autobiography). With the assistance of Syed Amir Ali, he rendered Makhaz-ul-Ulm by Syed Keramat Ali into English as a Treatise on the Sciences (1867) and Rammohun Roy's Tuhfatul Muwahedin into English in 1884. His Mohammedan Education in Bengal (1867) is an original work on education. He edited Guide (Urdu) and Durbeen (Persian). A number of his manuscripts on philology, psychology, women's education, in Urdu, still remain unpublished. He also understood basic Latin and Greek. His daughter, Khujista Akhtar Banu, was a well-known writer and poet.