Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy

Hassan Shahid Suhrawardy (24 October 1890 – 5 March 1965), an educationist, poet, linguist, writer, art-critic and diplomat, was born on 24 October 1890 in the famous Suhrawardy family of Kolkata. Shahid Suhrawardy was unmarried and died on 3 March 1965 in Karachi.

Shahid Suhrawardy's father, Sir Zahid Suhrawardy, was a Justice of the Calcutta High Court and his younger brother Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was an eminent politician and Prime Minister of Pakistan. Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, his first cousin, was a celebrated intellectual and diplomat.

Shahid Suhrawardy obtained a BA (Hons) degree in English from the University of Calcutta in 1909, as a student of the Scottish Churches College. In 1913, he graduated from Oxford University in Law.

During his time at Oxford he became friends with Robert Bridges, D. H. Lawrence and R.C. Trevelyan.

In 1914, Suhrawardy went on to Russia on a scholarship to further study the Russian language of which he already had a certain degree of mastery. He stayed on becoming Professor of English at Moscow University and was caught in the Russian Revolution (1917) (though he managed to escape). Shahid Suhrawardy returned to Russia to work and tour with the Moscow Art Theatre (1926–29) and then later came to reside in Paris with Professor Kalitinsky and his wife Maria Nikolaevna Germanova, a famous tragic actress of Russia in her time. In Paris, he served as the editor of the Fine Art Section of the League of Nations. He was also associated with editing of a quarterly journal on Byzantian art published from Prague.

Following his return to the sub-continent in 1932, Osmania University in Hyderabad commissioned him to write an introductory book on the Islamic art of different countries of the world. Later, he came to Visva-Bharati University at Rabindranath Tagore's invitation and researched on Iranian art in Santiniketan as the Nizam Professor. He was an art-critic for The Statesman and was instrumental in bringing the work of Bengali painter Jamini Roy to the notice of the public.

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