Dictionary of Indian Biography/Bilgrami, Sayyid Ali
BILGRAMI, SAYYID ALI (1851–)
Son of Sayyid Zainuddin Husain Khan Bahadm:, of the Bengal Provincial Service, a member of the well-known [family of Sayyids of Bilgram who emigrated to India from Wasit in Mesopotamia: born Nov. 10, 1851: educated at Canning College, Lucknow; Patna College, Bankipur, and Thomason Civil Engineering College, Rurki: M.A., and B.L.: in 1876, visited Europe and England in the suite of Sir Salar Jang I. (q.v.): joined the Royal School of Mines, passed the Examination for the Associateship in two years, and obtained the Murchison Medal in Geology. On return to India, in 1879, he entered the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad: became Secretary in the Departments of Public Works, Railways and Mines for nearly ten years: retired in 1901 to settle in England: was Examiner in Sanskrit to the University of Madras from 1890–2: received the title of Shams-al-ulama for Arabic learning in 1891: Gold Medallist, Calcutta University: in 1902 was appointed Lecturer in Mahratti to the University of Cambridge: has published Civilization of the Arabs, translated from the French of Dr. Gustav Le Bon: Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, Monograph on the Book of Kalila and Damna, Notes on the Educational Value of Persian as compared with Sanskrit, A Guide to the Cave Temples of Ellora, The Geology and Economic Minerals of Hyderabad, etc: appointed, 1902, by the India Office, to catalogue the collections of Arabic and Persian MSS., known as the Delhi MSS., a work of some magnitude.