The Contribution of Indo-Pakistan to Arabic Literature From Ancient Times to 1857

The Contribution of Indo-Pakistan to Arabic Literature from Ancient Times to 1857 is a landmark PhD dissertation submitted to the University of London in 1929. First published in 1946, this edition is a 1968 reprint of a highly respected academic work.

The study provides a comprehensive survey of the intellectual and literary contributions of scholars from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent to Arabic literature and Islamic scholarship over many centuries.

In twelve chapters, the work examines Arabic writings produced locally in the Indian subcontinent across a wide range of disciplines, including Qur’anic commentaries, Hadith literature, fiqh, tasawwuf, scholastic theology, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, historical literature, philology, literary composition, and Arabic poetry.

By documenting contributions across these diverse fields, the work highlights the depth and breadth of the subcontinent’s engagement with the Arabic intellectual tradition and its lasting impact on Islamic scholarship.

This reference work remains valuable for researchers and students of Islamic studies, Arabic literature, South Asian intellectual history, and the history of science in the Muslim world.The foreword to this work was written by H. A. R. Gibb (1895-1971), one of the most influential Western scholars in the field of Islamic studies in the 20th century.