تاريخ ندوة العلماء

Tarikh Nadwat al-'Ulama'

Tārīkh Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ (تاريخ ندوة العلماء) by Dr. Muḥammad Akram al-Nadwī is an extensive two-volume, approximately 1,250-page history of Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ, tracing the movement from its intellectual and historical background through its establishment and subsequent development into the modern period. The work opens with the condition of India under Muslim rule and British colonialism before examining the origins of the Nadwah movement, its founders and formative figures, and its three principal concerns: reform of Muslim society, moderation and balance, and the development of the Islamic educational curriculum.

Across fifteen chapters, the author follows the successive periods of Nadwah's history and the development of Dār al-ʿUlūm Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ, while also examining its educational, fatwa, daʿwah and tarbiyah departments; curricula and fields of study; Arabic and other literary and journalistic activities; scholarly institutions; and the writings of Nadwah's scholars across numerous disciplines. Separate chapters explore Nadwah's relations with the Arab world, the ḥadīth isnāds of its scholars, and its role in the contemporary Islamic world.

A particularly valuable feature of the work is its extensive reliance on original historical sources, especially Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ's annual reports, some of which are reproduced photographically. It is further enriched with photographs of prominent scholars, books, buildings, the library and mosque, and includes an entire chapter documenting the scholarly and ḥadīth transmission chains of the scholars of Nadwah. The reviewer describes it as the first Arabic work to present the history of Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ with this degree of breadth and detail.

Article in Al-Baʿth al-Islāmī