India, Nov. 15 -- In the 21st century, two events in the life of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) stand out: the Supreme Court judgment reaffirming its status as a minority institution, and the publication of Sir Syed: A Private Life, the English translation of Sir Syed Daroon-i Khana by Iftikhar Alam Khan. A book that contains much that is essential to understanding the life of the founder of AMU, this translation, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: A Private Life by Ather Farouqui makes available valuable material that might have remained inaccessible to scholars at a time when Urdu has become alien to the elite and when most historians rely solely on translations, many of which are not entirely accurate. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) remains one of the most consequential figures of 19th-century India, a man whose intellectual and institutional interventions altered the trajectory of Muslim life in the Indian subcontinent. He diagnosed with precision the decline of Muslims across the subcontinent after 1857 and chose modern education as the instrument of renewal. English, the language of power in the changing political scenario and of modern sciences, became the medium through which he sought to reinvigorate Muslim society. Today, though the region once shaped by Sir Syed's movement is divided between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the influence of his vision persists. It is therefore not surprising that every section of Indian society, including nationalists, religious reformers and historians alike, have sought to appropriate his legacy. The reality, however, is complex. The watershed of 1857 mar-ked a turning point in Sir Syed's life. For the British, a reconciliation with the Muslim elite was essential if their rule was to endure. The zamindars, fearful of losing status and estate, were eager to have an interlocutor. Sir Syed, already trusted by the colonial establishment, became a figure through whom this accommodation could be achieved. From this fraught context emerged his most enduring project: the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, the seed that would become the Aligarh Muslim University. The college embodied his attempt to negotiate between the Muslim past and the British present, marrying tradition to the promise of modern knowledge. The reason for the absence of a definitive biography of Sir Syed so far is most likely strategic, in line with the logic of AMU, partly because every group has sought to appropriate his image. Perhaps because of this, Aligarh Muslim University, the house he built, did not publish his complete works for a long time. His commentary on the Bible was published recently by the university's Sir Syed Academy. Only fragments exist as a record of his life: Maulana Altaf Husain Haali's affectionate Hayat-i Javid, Lelyveld's superficial Aligarh's First Generation (1978), Laurence Gautier's recent and quite ordinary treatise, Between Nation and 'Community' (2024), and a scattering of inadequate studies. The most authentic and objective work on him, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Reason, Religion and Nation, by Shafey Kidwai was only published in 2021. Before that is Anil Maheshwari's Aligarh University, Perfect Past and Precarious Present (2001). Still, Sir Syed scholarship in English is almost negligible. The primary reason is the lack of awareness of sources, mainly in Persianised Urdu. Iftikhar Alam Khan accessed sources in their original language and dedicated his life to Sir Syed studies, authoring 17 books. Sir Syed Daroon-i Khana addressed aspects not covered by other treatises. Ather Farouqui's translation gives it new life. A scholar in the field of Urdu language and education in post-Partition India, Farouqui is also the general-secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind). This gives the endeavour an added significance as it underlines historical ties between the Anjuman and Aligarh Muslim University....