Abdul Hamid Madarshahi

Fakhr al-Islām ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Rustam ʿAlī al-Madārshāhī (Arabic: فخر الإسلام عبد الحميد بن رستم علي المدارشاهي; 1869–31 March 1920), commonly known as Abdul Hamid Madarshahi (Bengali: আব্দুল হামিদ মাদার্শাহী) or simply Abdul Hamid,[2] was a Bengali Islamic scholar, author and educationist.

[3] He was one of the pioneers of introducing the Deobandi movement in Bengal and is noted for being one of the founding fathers of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam in Hathazari.

He traces his lineage to Sheikh Muhammad bin Hafeez, an Arab Muslim missionary who had arrived at the Port of Chittagong centuries prior, initially settling in the Jahanabad mahalla of Sitakunda where he established himself as a local zamindar (landowner).

[1] During his time at the Mohsinia Madrasa, Madarshahi was familiarised with Abdul Wahid Bengali and became greatly influenced by him, eventually co-operating in his reformation movement.

[11] In 1896, he co-founded Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam along with Abdul Wahid Bengali, Sufi Azizur Rahman and Habibullah Qurayshi, after realising the importance of having a madrasa in colonial Bengal.

Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam is the largest and oldest Deobandi seminary in Bangladesh , [ 8 ] [ 9 ] and ranks among the top ten madrasas of the subcontinent . [ 10 ]