Tafazzul Husain Kashmiri

Nawab Tafazzul Husain Kashmiri was born to a Kashmiri family in Sialkot in 1727. His grandfather, Karamullah, was a scholar who served as a minister under Moin-ul-Mulk, governor of Lahore. At the age of 13, his father moved to Delhi, where he studied basic logic and philosophy under Mulla Wajih . He learned Mathematics from Mirza Muhammad Ali. At the age of 18, his family moved to Lucknow where he joined the seminary of Firangi Mahal. Soon he developed doubts about the teachings of Sunni Islam and philosophy and moved out of the seminary, and started to research on his own. He then studied modern science and astronomy of his age. He had learned the philosophy of Mulla Sadra in Firangi Mahal, but moved on. == Scholarly career ==

Shuja-ud-Daula appointed him tutor to his son Saadat Ali Khan II in Allahabad. There the then young Dildar Ali Naseerabadi, who later came to be known as Ghufran Maab, became his student.After the death of Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula his elder son Asaf-ud-Daula appointed Allama Tafazzul Hussain Khan Kashmiri as the Prime Minister of Awadh. In the time of Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, Kashmiri was also appointed as an ambassador to the court of governor general of East India Company at Calcutta. Here he interacted with Reuben Burrow and James Dinwiddie. He learned Greek, Latin and English and started to translate scientific works of European scientists into Arabic to bridge the gap between the scientific revolution and the Muslim and Indian educational institutions. Works He authored the following: Collaboration with James Dinwiddie James Dinwiddie first taught him Optics and then modern geometry. To his surprise, Tafazzul was struggling with mathematics. He remarked:"It is somewhat irregular that a man who reads so much theory should be so totally ignorant of practical mathematics". Opposition from Sunni orthodoxy Shah Abdul Aziz, son of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, considered him an apostate because of some of his views. == Death ==

In 1799, he suffered a brain hemorrhage which left his body in a state of paralysis. He died travelling from Banaras to Lucknow on 3 March 1801. Mirza Abu Talib Khan wrote the following eulogy upon receiving the news of his death while in London: "Alas! The zest of Learning's cup is gone; Whose taste ne’er cloy’d, tho’ deep the draughts; Whose flavor yet upon the palate hangs Nectareous, nor Reason's thirst assuag’d But yes; – rent is the garment of the morn; And all dishevell’d floats the hair of night; All bath’d in tears of dew the stars look down With mournful eyes, in lamentation deep; For he, their sage belov’d, is dead; who first To Islam's followers explain’d their laws, Their distances, their orbits, and their times, As great Copernicus once half divin’d, And greater Newton proved; but, useless now, Their work we turn with idle hand, and scan With vacant eye, our own first master gone." == See also ==