Maniruzzaman Islamabadi

Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi
Born	1875 Patiya, Chittagong District, Bengal Presidency, British Raj (now Bangladesh)
Died	1950
Language	Bengali

Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi (1875-1950), was an Islamic philosopher, nationalist activist and journalist from Chittagong, Bengal, British India (present-day Bangladesh). He assumed the surname "Islamabadi" because "Islamabad" was the official name for Chittagong during the Muslim period. It has no relation to Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

Maniruzzaman Islamabadi was born in Bamara village in Patiya Upazila of Chittagong district. As he became older, he taught at various traditional madrassas.

Islamabadi began his career as a journalist by editing or managing Muslim reformist periodicals such as the Soltan (1901), Hablul Matin (1912), and journals such as Mohammadi (1903), Kohinoor (1911), Basona (1904) and Al-Eslam (1913). He organised literary conferences at Chittagong in 1922 and 1930 amidst pomp and grandeur. One such conference under the banner of "Chittagong Literary Society" was chaired by Rabindranath Tagore.

Islamabadi's activism started in 1904 with the "Islam Mission Samity" which had undertaken a course of action to preach awareness among Bengali Muslims of their cultural heritage. Referring to the uneducated mullahs’ reservation about learning geography on the baseless ground that the subject was created by the "Kafir English," Islamabadi wrote:

We wouldn’t be able to change our conditions, let alone make progress, until we would take the trouble to review out[sic] history and acquire essential knowledge about geography, science, industry, commerce and agriculture, et cetera.

Islamabadi supported the Indian National Congress and took an active part in the movement for the annulment of the Partition of Bengal. He also participated actively in the Non-cooperation Movement and Khilafat Movement and was the President of the provincial Congress Committee. He, along with Mohammad Akram Khan toured throughout Bengal and organized Khilafat meetings, particularly in Dhaka and Chittagong. In an article titled Asahojogita-o-Amader Kartbya, Islamabadi declared that to protect Khilafat and to acquire Swaraj were the twin aims of the Khilafat movement.

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