Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid (sä`yēd äkhmäd` khän), 1817–98, Indian Muslim educator. His family was long connected with the Mughal court, but he entered the service of the British East India Company. Convinced of the futility of revolt, he remained loyal to the British during the Indian Mutiny Indian Mutiny, 1857–58, revolt that began with Indian soldiers in the Bengal army of the British East India Company but developed into a widespread uprising against British rule in India. It is also known as the Sepoy Rebellion, sepoys being the native soldiers.
..... Click the link for more information. and saved the lives of many Europeans. Seeking to revitalize the Muslim community by the introduction of Western ideas, Sayyid Ahmad Khan organized societies for the translation of English works into Urdu and for the teaching of civics to the Indian public. In 1875 he established the Muslim Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, which later became Aligarh Muslim Univ. He was knighted in 1888. Among his works are Loyal Mohammedans of India (1860–61) and Causes of the Indian Revolt (1873).

Bibliography

See J. M. S. Baljon, Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1949).

Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid

(born Oct. 17, 1817, Delhi—died March 27, 1898, Aligarh, India) Indian educator and jurist. Born into a family of officials in the Mughal dynasty, he worked for the British East India Co. and held various judicial posts. He supported the British in the 1857 Indian Mutiny but criticized their errors in his influential pamphlet Causes of the Indian Revolt. His other works include Essays on the Life of Mohammed (1870) and commentaries on the Bible and Qur'an. He founded schools at Muradabad and Ghazipur, established the Scientific Society, sought to strengthen the Muslim community through the reform journal Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, and was active in founding a Muslim college, the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College, in 1877 at Aligarh.