Masud Husain Khan


Masud Husain Khan was an Indian linguist, the first Professor Emeritus in Social Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University and the fifth Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi.
On 16 October 2010 Masud Husain Khan died in Aligarh from Parkinson's disease.

Family

Masud Husain Khan was born in Qaimganj, district Farrukhabad, into an Afridi Pashtun family of Uttar Pradesh. His family is sometimes referred to as the Family of Vice-Chancellors, having provided Vice-Chancellors to four different universities across the Indian subcontinent.
Masud Husain's father Muzaffar Husain Khan completed his education from Islamia High School Etawah and Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College, Aligarh. He started his judicial career in Hyderabad but died of tuberculosis at the early age of twenty-eight. Masud Husain was just two years old when he lost his father. Muzaffar Husain Khan was eldest brother of-
Masud Husain's mother, Fatima Begum was eldest sister of-
After finishing primary education from Jamia Millia Islamia, Husain studied in Dhaka for a while. He completed his BA from Zakir Husain College, Delhi University and MA from Aligarh Muslim University. He did his PhD under the guidance of Professor Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui and wrote his magnum opus Muqaddama-e-tareekh-e-zaban-e-Urdu which was later published as a book and became a landmark work. He also studied Hindi and Sanskrit literature and was familiar with Bengali, Persian and French too. Later on, in 1953 he finished his DLitt from University of Paris in Linguistics.

Career

Husain served as Visiting Professor at Department of South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
In 1962, he became chairman at Osmania University's Urdu department where he served till 1968 when he was made the head of the linguistics department at Aligarh Muslim University.
He was Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu Hind's acting general secretary during 1969–1970.
From 3 November 1973 to 15 August 1978 he served Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia as Vice-Chancellor.
After his retirement, Husain was appointed as Visiting Professor at Iqbal Institute, Kashmir University, Srinagar and used to teach research methodology.
Masud Husain was also the Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Urdu Aligarh until the mid-1990s. Jamia Urdu, Aligarh was established as a distance education institution in 1939 for imparting Urdu education.
He was the President of All India Muslim Educational Conference until his death in 2010.
He was a member of the Executive Board of Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library.

Works