Hilali, Golam Maksud

Hilali, Golam Maksud (1900-1961) educationist, linguist and litterateur, was born on 30 November 1900 at Fulbari in sirajganj. He obtained his MA in Persian (1924) and in arabic (1932), BL (1927) and D Phil (1949) from Calcutta University. The subject of his research was 'Iran and Islam: Their Reciprocal Influence'. Apart from Bangla, English, Arabic and Persian, Golam Maksud knew more than a dozen other languages.

In 1926 Golam Maksud started his career as a lecturer of Persian at Karatia College, tangail. Later, he taught at Krishnanagar College, presidency college, Kolkata, chittagong college and rajshahi college. He also practised law at pabna for two years (1928-1930). In 1940-41 he served as assistant inspector of schools for Chittagong division.

While serving at Rajshahi College, Golam Maksud also worked as curator of Rajshahi varendra research museum in 1957. After his retirement from government service on 30 November 1957, he served as principal of Sirajganj College (1957-58) and as chief researcher at bangla academy (1959).

Golam Maksud did intensive research in Islamic studies and bangla literature and culture. His major works in English and Bangla include Halida Hanum (1933), A Manual of Persian Grammar (1934), Al Beruni (1937), Islamic Attitude Towards Non-Muslims (1952), Hazrater Jiban Niti (1965), Perso-Arabic Elements in Bengali (1967) and Iran and Islam: Their Reciprocal Influence. Bangla Academy has lately published Hilali Rachanabali in two volumes. Golam Maksud died on 17 December 1961. [Tasiqul Islam]