8vo. 4 pp., Contents, 318 pp., [8], Arabic text within borders, modern hard back binding, gilt lettering on spine, inscription and a very small piece of brown tape on title page, missing front fly leaf, foxing throughout, few wormholes on some pages, few ink annotations in margins, small ink blotch on pages 130-131, Matba’at al-Jawa’ib, Qustantiniyyah, Istanbul, first edition, 1296 A. H./ 1878.

Synopsis

Nawab Siddiq Hassan Khan was an Indian scholar. He learned the early books of Sarf, Grammar, Mukhtasar Ma’ani from his brother Sayid Ahmad Hasan ‘Arshi. Khan travelled to Delhi, which was the centre of knowledge in India, and he lived for two years in the palace of Nawab Mustafa Khan Bahadur, who was not only a very rich man but also very charitable and pious, hence he hosted students seeking knowledge.
In these two years, he benefited from the great Muhadith and Mufti Muhammad Sadrudin Khan and studied many books written by him and also took Isnad from him. Mufti Muhammad Sadrudin Khan was appointed by the British rulers as Mufti of Delhi. In 1857, in the battle for liberation, he announced a Fatwa of Jihad against British rule for which he was imprisoned; his property was looted and his valuable books were burned.
But after riots started against British rule on 2 June 1857, the movement for independence started and riots occurred in many cities. After the riots ended, the ruler of Bhopal Sikandar Begum called Muhammad Siddiq Khan to Bhopal. In 1860 Khan married her daughter Zakiyah Begum.
In 1885, Nawab Siddiq Hasan went on the Hajj and returned to India eight months later. On his way to perform the Hajj, on the ferry, he copied the book “Sarim Al-Munki” by Hafiz ibn Abdil Hadi and on his way back, he copied the book “Sunnan Ad-Darimi” from the manuscript of Shah Waliyullah Ad-Dehlawi. He bought many books in Mecca and Medina; he copied “As- Siyasah Ash-Shar’iyah” by Ibn Taymiyah in Mecca and many other epistles, and he mentioned his Ilmi activities in Mecca and Medina in his epistle “Rihlah As-Siddiq ila Bayt Al-‘Aqteeq” and his book “Itihaf An-Nubala”.
His works exceed 200 titles. Two texts from his works are published here in Arabic.