Mohammad Habib

Mohammad Habib (Urdu: محمد حبیب‎, Hindi: मोहम्मद हबीब) (1895–1971) was an Indian historian of medieval India. In 1947, the year of India's independence, he delivered the presidential address to the Indian History Congress. He was a professor, later emeritus, at Aligarh Muslim University. His son is the historian Irfan Habib.

Biography

Mohammad Habib was a son of Mohammed Naseem. His wife Sohaila was the daughter of Abbas Tyabji. His son Irfan Habib, is a historian and Professor Emeritus at Aligarh Muslim University.

Career

Mohammad Habib studied at the M.A.O. School and College (now Aligarh Muslim University. He topped the B.A. examination of the Allahabad University in 1916. The M.A.O. College was then affiliated to Allahabad University. He then proceeded to Oxford for higher studies where he was the president of the Oxford Majlis.

It was there that he received his baptism in nationalism. He was among the organizers of the Oxford Majlis, which he served as president for one term. The ideas of his liberal-minded tutor Ernest Barker, a meeting with Sarojini Naidu, the patronage which he received from Maulana Mohammad Ali, who visited London those days, played a role in shaping young Habib's ideas. At the call of Maulana Mohammad Ali, Habib returned to India to teach at Jamia Millia Islamia but apparently never became a regular member of its staff. When the non-co-operation movement was called off in 1922, he accepted an appointment as a Reader, and almost immediately afterwards as Professor, at the newly chartered Aligarh Muslim University.