Syed Ali Ashraf

Syed Ali Ashraf (1925 – 7 August 1998) was a Bangladeshi-born Islamic scholar and academic. He was the Professor of English and Head of the Department of English, Karachi University, and later became Director-General, World Centre for Islamic Education at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1980. He was also the founder and director-general of Islamic Academy, Cambridge. He was also the founder vice-chancellor of Darul Ihsan University from its founding to before his death in 1998 in Bangladesh.

Education

Syed Ali Ashraf was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He obtained his master's degree in English from the University of Dhaka and his Honours and PhD in English literature from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Career

He started out teaching at a university in what is now Bangladesh. He went on to hold the following positions:

• Lecturer and Reader in English at Dhaka University (1949)
• Head of the Department of English at Rajshahi University (1954–56)
• Professor and Head of the Department of English at Karachi University, Pakistan (1956–73)
• Professor and Head of the Department of English at King Abdul Aziz University, Makkah (1974–77)
• Professor at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah (1977–84)
• Visiting Professor at Harvard University (1971)
• Visiting Professor New Brunswick University (1974)

Works

He was a distinguished author and editor, and has written as well as edited several books and many articles. Some of them include:

• Crisis in Muslim Education, 1979, London: Hodder and Stoughton (Syed Ali Ashraf and Syed Sajjad Husain eds.)
• New Horizons in Muslim Education, 1985, London: Hodder and Stoughton
• Islam – Teacher's Manual – The Westhill Project, 1989, Leckhamptom: Stanley Thomas
• Religion and Education: Islamic and Christian Approaches, 1994, Cambridge: Islamic Academy (Syed Ali Ashraf and Paul H. Hirst eds.)