Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, Nos. 1 & 2229

OBITUARY

DR. SYED HUSAIN MOHAMMAD JAFRI

With the death of Dr. Syed Husain Mohammad Jafri on January

20, 2019 in Karachi at the age of 84, Pakistan has lost a scholar

of international repute. There are not many historians in Pakistan

who obtained two doctoral degrees in history. His first Ph.D. was

from the University of Lucknow (India), and the other from the

University of London. He Joined Pakistan Study Centre, University

of Karachi, as a founding director in 1983, from where he retired

in 1998.

He was the first Co-editor of the Hamdard Islamicus. He

remained till his last moments, a distinguished member of the

Advisory Board of the Hamdard Islamicus. Prof. Dr. Jafri was a

trend setter in the field of the sectarian history of Islam. He started

his career as a teacher at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur)

in 1962. He also served the American University of Beirut as the

Shaykh Zayed Chair of Islamic Studies and the Australian National

University, (Canberra). Subsequently he joined the Aga Khan

University, Karachi as a full professor, where he held for a decade,

the founding Chair of Islamic and Pakistan Studies.

Prof. Dr. Jafri travelled extensively to attend international

conferences and seminars and also lectured at numerous universities

in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa. He also served in a number

of important national and international academic, cultural and socio-

religious organisations. He was Vice Chairman of the Executive

Committee of ‘Islam and the West International’, Geneva,

Switzerland, for two terms of three years each.

Besides several books and articles published in international

journals, he has contributed to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden;

Encyclopaedia of Modern Islamic World, New York;

Encyclopaedia of World Religions, USA; Al-Munjid Arabic



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, Nos. 1 & 2230

Dictionary, Beirut.

Some of important works of Prof. Dr. Syed H.M. Jafri are:

Origins and Early Development of Shi‘a Islam, published by the

American University of Beirut in the 1979 (It was translated in

Urdu as well); Political and Moral Vision of Islam (2000); Iqbal,

Fikr-i-Islami ki Tahzib-i-Jadid (Urdu) which he edited and which

was published by the Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi,

Karachi.

May Allah Almighty rest his soul in peace and give his family the

courage to bear this loss. Amen!