Mannan, Kazi Abdul

Mannan, Kazi Abdul (1930-1994) educationist and researcher was born at Mirchak of Maldah town on 1 January 1930. Kazi Abdul Mannan successfully passed High Madrasah Examination from Dadonchak Hemayet Memorial High Madrasa of Rajshahi in 1945 and, IA Examination from Maldah College in 1947. Then he completed his BA (honours) in Bangla from Rajshahi College in 1949, and MA in the same subject from the University of Dhaka in 1951, securing first class. He earned his PhD degree in bilingual manuscripts in Bengal from London University in 1964. The title of his doctoral thesis was: The Emergence and Development of Dobhasi Literature in Bengal (upto 1855 AD).

Kazi Abdul Mannan entered teaching career in 1952 as a lecturer at MC College in Sylhet. He was transferred to rajshahi college in 1954. In 1957, he joined in the Bangla Department of rajshahi university as a lecturer, and after one year he was appointed a permanent teacher there. He then became a professor and retired in 1991. He was the Nazrul Professor of the University during the last three years of his teaching career.

Abdul Mannan's Adhunik Bangla Sahitya Muslim Sadhana (Muslims' Contribution to Modern Bangla Literature) was published from Rajshahi University in 1961, and his PhD thesis The Emergence and Development of Dobhasi Literature in Bengal (upto 1855 AD) from Dhaka University in 1966. Some of his other research works include: Syed Ismail Hossen Siraji (1970), Rabindranath, Nazrul Islam o Anyanya Prosabga (Nazrul Islam and other Issues, 1989) and Adhunik Bangla Sahitya o Muslim Samaj (Modern Bangla Literature and the Muslim Community, 1990).

Kazi Abdul Mannan collected and compiled the entire works of mir mosharraf hossain (1847-1912) and edited Mosharraf Rachana Sambhar (Collected works of Mir Mosharraf Hossain, 5 vols., 1976-1986), which was published by the Bangla Academy. In his original and edited works, he presented the contributions of Muslim litterateurs in an impartial, unbiased manner. This perspective of his is also noticed in his sporadic monthly magazine entitled the Kaushik, which was first published in January 1979.

During the war of liberation (1971) Mannan lived in exile in India and played the role of an organizer of the independence war. For his research work in the field of literature, he was awarded Adamji Literary Award (1962), Mother Baks Literary Award (1981) and s’adat ali akhand Literary Award (1993). He died in Rajshahi on 22 March 1994. [Wakil Ahmad]