This commemorative volume, marking the bicentenary of an outstanding thinker, writer, educationist, and visionary — Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) brings into sharper light the various facets of Sir Syed’s genius. Contributors to the volume, hailing from the US, Europe, and South Asia, provide fresh perspectives on Sir Syed’s oeuvre, and his sterling contributions to domains as diverse as the Quran interpretation, Prophet Muhammad’s biography, social reform, Urdu language and literature, journalism, travelogue, archaeology, history, politics, inter-Faith understanding, and, above all, education.
This volume offers a nuanced, critical exploration of the historic phenomenon of the awakening of the Indian Muslims to the challenges of modernity, which was set in motion by this great Muslim Renaissance Man of India - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

Sir Syed is, nonetheless, acclaimed most for having founded in 1877, against the bleak conditions contingent on the end of the Muslim rule in India, the Mohammedan-Anglo Oriental College (the MAO College) at Aligarh which sensitized Indian Muslims to Western education and modernity, which, in turn, inspirited them. In 1920, the MAO College was elevated to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) which now ranks amid the top Indian universities