Mawlānā Syed Ahmad Dehlvi | |
---|---|
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Title | Khan Sahib |
Personal | |
Born | 8 January 1846 |
Died | 11 May 1918 | (aged 72)
Religion | Islam |
Notable work(s) | Farhang e Asifiya |
Syed Ahmad Dehlvi (also written as Sayyid Aḥmad Dihlawī; 8 January 1846 – 11 May 1918) was an Indian Muslim scholar, linguist, lexicographer, philologist, educationist and an author of Urdu language. He compiled the Asifiya dictionary.
Syed Ahmad Dehlvi was born on 8 January 1846 in Delhi, Mughal India.[1][2] He was the son of Hafiz Abd al-Rahman Mongheri, a descendant of Abdul Qadir Jilani.[3]
Dehlvi assisted S W Fallon in dictionary projects between 1873 and 1879.[1] He taught at Shahi Madrasa, located in the Arab Sarai, in Delhi.[3] He was later appointed as a teacher of Urdu and Persian in the Municipal Board High School, in Himachal Pradesh. He was a fellow and examiner at University of the Punjab and served as the vice-manager of Government Book Depot in Lahore.[2]
In 1914, Dehlvi was honored with the title of Khan Sahib by the Government of British India.[3][2] He died on 11 May 1918.[1]
Syed Ahmed Dehlavi estimated in the Farhang-e-Asifiya[7] Urdu dictionary, that 75% of Urdu words have their etymological roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit,[8][9][10] and approximately 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit.[11][12] Urdu has borrowed words from Persian and to a lesser extent, Arabic through Persian,[13] to the extent of about 25%[8][9][10][14] to 30% of Urdu's vocabulary.[15]
Zahrah Jafri wrote Sayyid Aḥmad Dihlavī: ḥayāt aur kārnāme (transl. Sayyid Aḥmad Dihlavī: Life and works).[16]