Muhammad Latif was born at
Lahore in 1851, two years after the annexation of Punjab into the
British Raj following the
second Anglo-Sikh war. He belonged to an educated family his father Syed Muhammad Azeem (1815–1885) founded
The Lahore Chronicle in 1850, a pioneering English-language newspaper of
British Punjab. Latif received a western-style education at
Calcutta University which helped him to pursue a career in judiciary. Latif started as a translator, and subsequently reader, in the
Punjab Chief Court. He rose to the position of
assistant commissioner of
Hoshiarpur in 1880, and then also held the judicial charges of
Lahore,
Multan,
Jalandhar,
Gujranwala,
Jhang and
Gurdaspur, working in almost all notable places in Punjab. He was given the title of
Khan Bahadur in 1892 as well as
Shams-ul-Ulema in 1897 for his "History of the Punjab". Latif was married to a niece of
Syed Ahmed Khan in 1875. ==Academic career==