Ahmad, Khan Bahadur Syed Ashrafuddin

Ahmad, Khan Bahadur Syed Ashrafuddin (1855-?) Urdu and Persian poet. He was born in Calcutta. His father, Nawab Amiruddin Khan Bahadur, was a resident of Patna. He studied at Aliya Madrasa, Calcutta, and Doveton College. He first worked for Wajid Ali Shah at Matia Buruz. He was later appointed to the imambara of Hughli as a mutawalli (official trustee of a property donated for the promotion of religion or for public welfare).

Ahmad was an influential man and was appointed at various times honorary magistrate of Hughli, municipal commissioner, secretary to Anjuman-e-Islami, fellow of the university of calcutta, and trustee of Aligarh College. Among his 14 books in Urdu and Persian are Tuhfa-e-Sukhan (1881), Nawratan (1882), Ibratnama (1883), Durdana (1884), Tabakat-e-Muhsinia (1889), Guldasta (1890) and Awraq-e-Ashraf (1915). The Tabakat-e-Muhsinia is a biographical book about the lives and contributions of the trustees of the Hughli Imambara, founded by haji muhammad mohsin. Awraq-e-Ashraf is a collection of his Urdu and Persian poems, which include nat, ghazals, qasida and salam. The British government honoured him with the title of Khan Bahadur in 1893 and the Certificate of Honour in 1903. [Wakil Ahmed]