Urdu Studies, Vol 3 Issue 1, October 2023

Ta’rīkh-e Masīḥ: Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī’s “Life of Jesus”

Marcia Hermnasen

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1004295

Abstract:

The 1920s was the most active decade in the political activism and publishing career of the Indian Muslim activist, Sufi, and literary figure, Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī (1879-1955). The text under consideration here, Ta’rīkh-e Masīḥ (History of the Messiah) was issued in 1927, 2 but had apparently been under preparation by him for at least four or five years, beginning as early as 1922. This article explores the major elements and perspectives represented in Niẓāmī’s work on Jesus in order to situate it within broader themes and issues surrounding Muslim-Christian dialogue in South Asia.

Read/ Download Full Paper

Works cited:
Afsaruddin, Asma, “The Messiah ʿIsa, Son of Mary: Jesus in the Islamic Tradition.” In

Nicholas of Cusa and Islam, Ian Christopher Levy, Rita George

Tvrtković, and Donald Duclow (eds.). (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2020), 177–201.

Goddard, Hugh. “Modern Pakistani and Indian Muslim perceptions of Christianity,” Islam

and Christian–Muslim Relations 5, No. 2, 1994: 165-188.

Guenther, Alan. “Christian Responses to Ahmad Khan’s Commentary on the Bible.”

Comparative Islamic Studies 6, nos. 1-2 (2010): 67-100.

Hasan, Mushirul and Nishat Zaidi (Trans. and edited). A Voyage to Modernism: Syed

Ahmed Khan, New Delhi: Primus, 2011.

Hermansen, Marcia. “Common Themes, Uncommon Contexts: The Sufi Movements of

Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878-1955) and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927)” in A Pearl in Wine:

Essays on the Life, Music and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan ed. Zia Inayat Khan, New

Lebanon, NY: Omega, 2001, 323-353.

_____. “Khwaja Hassan Nizami” in Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order Carl Ernst and

Bruce Lawrence, New York: Palgrave, 2002, 113-118, 121- 123.

_____. “Sufi Autobiography in the 20th Century: Worldly and Spiritual Journeys of Khwaja

Hasan Nizami” for Tales of God’s Friends: Sufi Hagiography ed. John Renard

(Berkeley: University of California, 2009), 286-300.

____. “Two Sufis on Molding the New Muslim Woman: Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878-1955)

and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927) in Barbara Metcalf ed. Islam in South Asia in

Practice Princeton, 2009, 326-338.

____. “An Early 20th Century Indian Sufi (Khwaja Hasan Nizami d. 1955) Views Hinduism.”

 Comparative Islamic Studies 4, (1-2: 2010), 157-179.

Khalidi, Tarif. The Muslim Jesus: sayings and stories in Islamic literature. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 2001.

_____. “The Role of Jesus in Intra-Muslim Polemics of the First Two Islamic Centuries.” In

Christian-Arabic Polemics During the Abbasid Period (750-1258), edited by S. K.

Samir and J. S. Nielsen. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994, 146-156.

Leirvik, Oddbjørn. Images of Jesus Christ in Islam: Introduction, Survey of Research, Issues

of Dialogue. Vol. LXXVI, Studia Missionalia Upsaliensia. Uppsala: Swedish Institute of

Missionary Research, 1999.

____. “Jesus in modern Muslim thought: from anti-colonial polemics to post-colonial

dialogue?” In Jesus Beyond Nationalism. Constructing the Historical Jesus in a Period

of Cultural Complexity. Ward Blanton, James G. Crossley and Halvor Moxnes (eds.).

London: Equinox Press, 2009, 139-158.

____. Images of Jesus Christ in Islam. 2nd edition. London: New York: Continuum, 2010.

Lelyveld, David. “Naicari Nature: Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Reconciliation of Science,

Technology, and Religion.” In Y. Saikia & M. Rahman (Eds.), The Cambridge

Companion to Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019,

69-86.

Malik, Jamal. “Sufi Amnesia in Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s Tahdhib al-Akhlaq.” In Sufism East

and West, Jamal Malik and Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh (eds.), 76 103.

Muda Ismail Abd. Rahman. “The Interpretation of the Birth of Jesus and his Miracles in the

Writings of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan”, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 14:1

2003, 23-31.

Mushīr al-Ḥaqq, “Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī Mutarjim-o Mufassir-e Qur’ān.” In Khwāja Ḥasan

Niẓāmī: Ḥayāt-o-Kārmāma. Khwāja Ḥasan Thānī Niẓāmī (ed.) Delhi: Urdu Academy

Delhi, 1987, 98-108.

Niẓāmī, Khwāja Ḥasan. Krishen Bītī. Delhi: Delhi Printing Works, 1919.

_____. Krishen bītī ba taṣwīr (subtitled “The True and Explained Life Account of India’s

Famous Avatar, Sri Krishna”. Delhi: Halqa-i Mashā’ikh, 1917.

_____. Krishen kathā. Delhi: Ansari Press, 1941.

_____. Irānī  darvīsh trans. of Kashf al-Asrār (on Bahā Ullāh).

_____.  Asrār-e bābī (Secrets of the Bab).

_____. Ta’rīkh-e masīḥ. Delhi: Maṭba‘a Ḥamīdiyya, 1927.

Pals, Daniel. The Victorian “Lives” of Jesus. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1982.

Pickering C. “Murray T. Titus: Missionary and Islamic Scholar.” International Bulletin of

Missionary Research. 19(3, 1995):118-120. 

Rahman, Muda Ismail Abd, “The Interpretation of The Birth of Jesus and His Miracles in the

Writings of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan,” Islam And Christian–Muslim Relations 14

(1:2003): 23-31.

Ramsey, Charles M. “Sir Sayyid and the Religious Foundations for a Pluralist Society.” In Sir

Syed Ahmad Khan: Muslim Renaissance Man of India A Bicentenary Commemorative

Volume, A.R. Kidwai, (ed.) New Delhi: Viva Books, 2017, 288- 307.

Schmidtke, Sabine. “Muslim Perceptions and Receptions of the Bible,” In Studying the Near

and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1935-2018, ed. Sabine

Schmidtke, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, pp. 101-114.

Sikand, Yoginder. “Sikh-Muslim Harmony: Contributions of Khwāja Ḥasan

Niẓāmī.”Economic and Political WeeklyVol. 39, No. 11 (Mar. 13-19, 2004),

pp. 1113-1116.

_____. “The Fitna of Irtidad: Muslim Missionary Response to the Shuddhi of the Arya Samaj

in Early Twentieth century India”. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 17, (1, 1997):65-

82.

_____.  ‘Building Bridges Between Sikhs and Muslims: The Contribution of Khwaja Hasan

Nizami’, Studies in Inter-Religious Dialogue, 9 (2, 1999): 178-188.

Stalker, James. “Our Present Knowledge of The Life Of Christ”, The Contemporary Review,

1866-1900; London Vol. 77, (Jan 1900): 124-132.

Stevens, Jennifer. “Nineteenth-Century Lives of Jesus” in The Historical Jesus and the

Literary Imagination 1860–1920 Liverpool University Press, 2010.

Titus, Murray. “Tarīkh-i-Masih by Hasan Nizami” (Review). Moslem World 18, no. 3 (July

1928): 317.

____. Islam in India and Pakistan. Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publications, 1959.

Troll, C. W. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology. New Delhi: Vikas

Publishing House, 1978.

_____. “Sayyed Ahmad Khan’s Commentary on the Holy Bible.” Islam and the Modern

Age: A Quarterly Journal 7(4), (1976): 35–45.

_____. “Sayyid Ahmad Khan on Matthew 5: 17–20.” Islamochristiana 3 (1977): 97–105.

Troll, Christian W., Charles M. Ramsey, and Mahboob Basharat Mughal, The Gospel

According to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898): An Annotated Translation of “Tabyīn

al-kalām” (Part 3) Volume: 38 Leiden: EJ Brill, 2020.

Wāḥidī, Mullā. Sawāniḥ ‘Umrī: Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī. Delhi: Munādī Khwāja Number,

1957.

______. Sawāniḥ ‘Umrī: Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī. Delhi: Munādī Khwāja Number, 1957.

Weitbrecht Stanton, H. U. “The Urdu Language and the Urdu Bible,” The Muslim World 19,

no. 3 (July 1929): 274-286.

Zebiri, Kate. “Contemporary Muslim Understanding of the Miracles of Jesus.” The Muslim

World 90 (No. 1/2, 2007):71-90.

Ta’rīkh-e Masīḥ: Khwāja Ḥasan Niẓāmī’s “Life of Jesus” by Marcia Hermnasen is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0