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name	Don Quixote
title orig
author	Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
country	Spain
language	Spanish
genre	Picaresco, satire, parody, farce
publisher	Juan de la Cuesta
pub date	1605 (Part One)1615 (Part Two)
english pub date	1612 (Part One)1620 (Part Two)
media type	Print
dewey	863
congress	PQ6323
length	381,214 words }}

(; ), fully titled ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' (), is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes. The novel follows the adventures of Alonso Quijano, who reads too many chivalric novels, and sets out to revive chivalry under the name of Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza as his squire, who frequently deals with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood with a unique Earthy wit. He is met by the world as it is, initiating themes like Intertextuality, Realism, Metatheatre and Literary Representation.

Published in two volumes a decade apart, in 1605 and 1615, ''Don Quixote'' is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In one such list, ''Don Quixote'' was cited as the "best literary work ever written".

Plot[link]

Part 1[link]

The First Sally

Alonso Quijano, the protagonist of the novel, is a retired country gentleman nearing fifty years of age, living in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and housekeeper. While mostly a rational man of sound reason, his reading of books of chivalry in excess has had a profound effect on him, leading to the distortion of his perception and the wavering of his mental faculties. In essence, he believes every word of these books of chivalry to be true though, for the most part, the content of these books is clearly fiction. Otherwise, his wits, in regards to everything other than chivalry, are intact. He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armour, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante". He designates a neighboring farm girl, as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.

He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, whom he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub him a knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then dubs him a knight to be rid of him, and sends him on his way. Don Quixote next "frees" a young boy who is tied to a tree and beaten by his master by making his master swear on the chivalric code treat the boy fairly. The boy's beating is continued as soon as Quixote leaves. Don Quixote has a run-in with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, one of whom severely beats Don Quixote and leaves him on the side of the road. Don Quixote is found and returned to his home by a neighboring peasant.

The Second Sally

While Don Quixote is unconscious in his bed, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. After a short period of feigning health, Don Quixote approaches his neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The uneducated Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. The two next encounter a group of friars accompanying a lady in a carriage. They are heavily cloaked, as is the lady, to protect themselves from the hot climate and dust on the road. Don Quixote takes the friars to be enchanters who hold the lady captive. He knocks a friar from his horse, and is immediately challenged by an armed Basque travelling with the company. As he has no shield, the Basque uses a pillow to protect himself, which saves him when Don Quixote strikes him. The combat ends with the lady leaving her carriage and demanding those travel with her to "surrender".

The Pastoral Wanderings

Sancho and Don Quixote go on, and fall in with a group of goatherds. Don Quixote tells Sancho and the goatherds about the "Golden Age" of man, reminiscent of both Ovid and the later Rousseau in which property does not exist, and men live in peace. The goatherds invite the Knight and Sancho to the funeral of Grisóstomo, once a student who left his studies to become a shepherd after reading Pastoral novels, seeking the shepherdess Marcela. At the funeral Marcela appears, delivering a long speech vindicating herself from the bitter verses written about her by Grisóstomo, claiming her own autonomy and freedom from expectations put on her by Pastoral clichés. She disappears into the woods, and Don Quixote and Sancho follow. Ultimately giving up, the two stop and dismount by a pond to rest. Some Galicians arrive to water their ponies, and Rocinante attempts to mate with them. The Galicians hit Rocinante with clubs to dissuade him, which Don Quixote takes as a threat and runs to defend Rocinante. The Galicians beat Don Quixote and Sancho leaving them in great pain.

The Adventures with Cardenio and Dorotea

After leaving the prisoners, The Knight and Sancho wander into the Sierra Morena, and there encounter the dejected Cardenio. Cardenio relates the first part of his story, in which he falls deeply in love with his childhood friend Luscinda, and is hired as the companion to the Duke's son, putting leading to his friendship with the Duke's younger son, Don Fernando. Cardenio confides in Don Fernando his love for Luscinda and the delays in their engagement, caused by Cardenio's desire to keep with tradition. After reading Cardenio's poems praising Luscinda, Don Fernando falls in love with her. Don Quixote interrupts when Cardenio suggests that his beloved may have become unfaithful after the formulaic stories of spurned lovers in Chivalric novels.

In the course of their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. These encounters are magnified by Don Quixote’s imagination into chivalrous quests. Don Quixote’s tendency to intervene violently in matters which do not concern him, and his habit of not paying his debts, result in many privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often getting the worst of it). Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The author hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost.

Part 2[link]

The Third Sally

Although the two parts are now normally published as a single work, ''Don Quixote, Part Two'' was a sequel published ten years after the original novel. While Part One was mostly farcical, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception.

As ''Part Two'' begins, it is assumed that the literate classes of Spain have all read the first part of the history of Don Quixote and his squire. When they encounter the duo in person, a Duke and Duchess, and others, deceive Don Quixote for entertainment, setting forth a string of imagined adventures resulting in a series of practical jokes that put Don Quixote's sense of chivalry and his devotion to Dulcinea through many tests.

Even Sancho deceives him at one point. Pressured into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three dirty and ragged peasant girls, and tells Don Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho pretends that their derelict appearance results from an enchantment. Sancho later gets his comeuppance for this when, as part of one of the duke and duchess's pranks, the two are led to believe that the only method to release Dulcinea from her spell is for Sancho to give himself a surplus of three thousand lashes. Sancho naturally resists this course of action, leading to friction with his master. Under the duke's patronage, Sancho eventually gets a governorship, though it be false, and proves to be a wise and practical ruler; though this, too, ends in humiliation.

Near the end, Don Quixote reluctantly sways towards sanity: an inn is just an inn, not a castle.

The lengthy untold "history" of Don Quixote's adventures in knight-errantry comes to a close after his battle with the Knight of the White Moon, in which we the readers find him conquered. Bound by the rules of chivalry, Don Quixote submits to prearranged terms that the vanquished is to obey the will of the conqueror, which in this case, is that Don Quixote is to lay down his arms and cease his acts of chivalry for the period of one year (a duration in which he may be cured of his madness). Defeated and dejected, he and Sancho start their journey home.

Part Two of Don Quixote is often regarded as the birth of modern literature, as it explores the concept of a character understanding that he is being written about. This is a theme much explored in writings of the 20th Century.

Upon returning to his village, Don Quixote announces his plan to retire to the countryside and live the pastoral existence of shepherd, although his housekeeper, who has a more realistic view of the hard life of a shepherd, urges him to stay home and tend to his own affairs. Soon after, he retires to his bed with a deathly illness, possibly brought on by melancholy over his defeats and humiliations. One day, he awakes from a dream having fully recovered his sanity. Sancho tries to restore his faith, but Alonso Quixano, for that is his true name, can only renounce his previous existence and apologize for the harm he has caused. He dictates his will, which includes a provision that his niece will be disinherited if she marries a man who reads books of chivalry. After Alonso Quixano dies, the author emphasizes that there are no more adventures to relate, and that any further books about Don Quixote would be spurious.

Themes[link]

The novel's structure is in episodic form. It is written in the picaresco style of the late sixteenth century, and features reference other picaresque novels including ''Lazarillo de Tormes'' and ''The Golden Ass''. The full title is indicative of the tale's object, as ''ingenioso'' (Spanish) means "quick with inventiveness". marking the transition of modern literature from Dramatic to thematic unity. The novel takes place over a long period of time, including many adventures all united by common themes of the nature of reality, reading, and dialogue in general.

Although the novel is farcical on the surface, the novel, especially in its second half, is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. ''Quixote'' has served as an important thematic source not only in literature but in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss. The contrasts between the tall, thin, fancy-struck, and idealistic Quixote and the fat, squat, world-weary Panza is a motif echoed ever since the book’s publication, and Don Quixote's imaginings are the butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes in the novel. Even faithful and simple Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at certain points. The novel is considered a satire of orthodoxy, veracity, and even nationalism. In going beyond mere storytelling to exploring the individualism of his characters, Cervantes helped move beyond the narrow literary conventions of the chivalric romance literature that he spoofed, which consists of straightforward retelling of a series of acts that redound to the knightly virtues of the hero.

From shepherds to tavern-owners and inn-keepers, the characterization in ''Don Quixote'', was groundbreaking. The character of Don Quixote became so well known in its time that the word ''quixotic'' was quickly adopted by many languages. Characters such as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote’s steed, Rocinante, are emblems of Western literary culture. The phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies derives from an iconic scene in the book.

It stands in a unique position between medieval chivalric romance and the modern novel. The former consist of disconnected stories featuring the same characters and settings with little exploration of the inner life of even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the psychological evolution of their characters. In Part I, Quixote imposes himself on his environment. By Part II, people know about him through "having read his adventures," and so, he needs to do less to maintain his image. By his deathbed, he has regained his sanity, and is once more "Alonso Quixano the Good".

When it was first published, ''Don Quixote'' was usually interpreted as a comic novel. After the French Revolution it was popular in part due to its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting—not comic at all. In the 19th century it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell "whose side Cervantes was on." Many critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote's innate idealism and nobility are viewed by the world as insane, and are defeated and rendered useless by common reality. By the 20th century the novel had come to occupy a canonical space as one of the foundations of modern literature.

Background[link]

Sources[link]

Sources for ''Don Quixote'' include the Castillian novel ''Amadis de Gaula'', which had enjoyed great popularity throughout the 16th century. Another prominent source, which Cervantes evidently admires more, is ''Tirant lo Blanch'' which the priest describes in Chapter VI of ''Quixote'' as "the best book in the world." The scene of the book burning gives us an excellent list of Cervantes's likes and dislikes about literature.

Cervantes makes a number of references to the Italian poem ''Orlando furioso''. In chapter 10 of the first part of the novel, Don Quixote says he must take the magical helmet of Mambrino, an episode from Canto I of ''Orlando'', and itself a reference to Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando innamorato''. The interpolated story in chapter 33 of Part four of the First Part is a retelling of a tale from Canto 43 of ''Orlando'', regarding a man who tests the fidelity of his wife.

Another important source appears to have been Apuleius's ''The Golden Ass'', one of the earliest known novels, a picaresque from late classical antiquity. The wineskins episode near the end of the interpolated tale "The Curious Impertinent" in chapter 35 of the first part of ''Don Quixote'' is a clear reference to Apuleius, and recent scholarship suggests that the moral philosophy and the basic trajectory of Apuleius's novel are fundamental to Cervantes's program. Similarly, many of both Sancho's adventures in Part II and proverbs throughout are taken from popular Spanish and Italian folklore.

Spurious ''Second Part'' by Avellaneda[link]

It is not certain when Cervantes began writing ''Part Two'' of ''Don Quixote'', but he had probably not gotten much further than Chapter LIX by late July 1614. About September, however, a spurious Part Two, entitled ''Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: by the Licenciado (doctorate) Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, of Tordesillas'', was published in Tarragona by an unidentified Aragonese who was an admirer of Lope de Vega, rival of Cervantes. Avellaneda's identity has been the subject of many theories, but there is no consensus as to who he was. In its prologue, the author gratuitously insulted Cervantes, who not surprisingly took offense and responded; the last half of Chapter LIX and most of the following chapters of Cervantes' ''Segunda Parte'' lend some insight into the effects upon him; Cervantes manages to work in some subtle digs at Avellaneda's own work, and in his preface to Part II, comes very near to criticizing Avellaneda directly.

In his introduction to ''The Portable Cervantes'', Samuel Putnam, a noted translator of Cervantes' novel, calls Avellaneda's version "one of the most disgraceful performances in history".

The second part of Cervantes' ''Don Quixote'', finished as a direct result of the Avellaneda book, has come to be regarded by some literary critics as superior to the first part, because of its greater depth of characterization, its discussions, mostly between Quixote and Sancho, on diverse subjects, and its philosophical insights.

Other stories[link]

''Don Quixote, Part One'' contains a number of stories which do not directly involve the two main characters, but which are narrated by some of the picaresque figures encountered by the Don and Sancho during their travels. The longest and best known of these is "El Curioso Impertinente" (the impertinently curious man), found in Part One, Book Four. This story, read to a group of travelers at an inn, tells of a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes obsessed with testing his wife's fidelity, and talks his close friend Lothario into attempting to seduce her, with disastrous results for all. In ''Part Two'', the author acknowledges the criticism of his digressions in ''Part One'' and promises to concentrate the narrative on the central characters (although at one point he laments that his narrative muse has been constrained in this manner). Nevertheless, "Part Two" contains several back narratives related by peripheral characters.

Several abridged editions have been published which delete some or all of the extra tales in order to concentrate on the central narrative.

Style[link]

Spelling and pronunciation [link]

Cervantes wrote his work in a form of Old Castilian, the medieval form of the Spanish language, that was quickly evolving into more modern Spanish. The language of ''Don Quixote'', although still containing archaisms, is far more understandable to modern Spanish readers than is, for instance, the completely medieval Spanish of the ''Poema de mio Cid'', a kind of Spanish that is as different from Cervantes's language as Middle English is from Modern English. The Old Castilian language was also used to show the higher class that came with being a knight errant.

In Old Castilian the letter ''x'' represented the sound written with ''sh'' in modern English, so the name was originally pronounced " ". However as Old Castilian became modern Spanish, the pronunciation of the sh sound changed, and came to be pronounced with a voiceless velar fricative sound like the Scottish or German ''ch'' and today the Spanish pronunciation of "Quixote" is . The original pronunciation is reflected in languages such as Astur-Leonese, Galician, Catalan, French, Italian and Portuguese that pronounce it with a "sh" or "ch" sound.

Today English speakers generally attempt something close to the modern Spanish pronunciation when saying ''Quixote'' (''Quijote''), as , although the traditional English spelling pronunciation pronouncing the name with the value of the letter x in modern English is still sometimes used, resulting in or . The traditional English rendering is preserved in the pronunciation of the adjectival form ''quixotic'', i.e., or , the foolishly impractical pursuit of ideals, typically marked with rash and lofty romantic ideals.

Setting[link]

Cervantes' story takes place on the plains of La Mancha, specifically the ''comarca'' of Campo de Montiel.

The location of the village to which Cervantes alludes in the opening sentence of ''Don Quixote'' has been the subject of debate since its publication over four centuries ago. Indeed, Cervantes deliberately omits the name of the village, giving an explanation in the final chapter:

In 2004, a multidisciplinary team of academics from Complutense University, led by Francisco Parra Luna, Manuel Fernández Nieto and Santiago Petschen Verdaguer, deduced that the village was that of Villanueva de los Infantes. Their findings were published in a paper titled ''"'El Quijote' como un sistema de distancias/tiempos: hacia la localización del lugar de la Mancha"'', which was later published as a book: ''El enigma resuelto del Quijote''. The result was replicated in two subsequent investigations: ''"La determinación del lugar de la Mancha como problema estadístico"'' and "The Kinematics of the Quixote and the Identity of the 'Place in La Mancha'".

Language[link]

Because of its widespread influence, ''Don Quixote'' also helped cement the modern Spanish language. The opening sentence of the book created a classic Spanish cliché with the phrase ("whose name I do not wish to recall"): ("In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to recall, there lived, not very long ago, one of those gentlemen with a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.")

The novel's farcical elements make use of punning and similar verbal playfulness. Character-naming in ''Don Quixote'' makes ample figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names ''Rocinante'' (a reversal) and ''Dulcinea'' (an allusion to illusion), and the word itself, possibly a pun on (jaw) but certainly (Catalan: thighs), a reference to a horse's rump. As a military term, the word ''quijote'' refers to ''cuisses'', part of a full suit of plate armour protecting the thighs. The Spanish suffix ''-ote'' denotes the augmentative—for example, ''grande'' means large, but ''grandote'' means extra large. Following this example, ''Quixote'' would suggest 'The Great Quijano', a play on words that makes much sense in light of the character's delusions of grandeur. ''La Mancha'' is a region of Spain, but ''mancha'' (Spanish word) means spot, mark, stain, region and word are not etymologically related (from Arab origin the former, from Latin ''macula'' the latter), so "de La Mancha" (lit. both Stained Quixote and Quixote from La Mancha) is an hilarious name for a spotless knight.

Publication[link]

In July 1604, Cervantes sold the rights of ''El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha'' (known as ''Don Quixote, Part I'') to the publisher-bookseller Francisco de Robles for an unknown sum. License to publish was granted in September, the printing was finished in December, and the book came out on January 16, 1605. The novel was an immediate success. The majority of the 400 copies of the first edition were sent to the New World, with the publisher hoping to get a better price in the Americas. Although most of them disappeared in a shipwreck near La Havana, approximately 70 copies reached Lima, from where they were sent to Cuzco in the heart of the defunct Inca Empire.

No sooner was it in the hands of the public than preparations were made to issue derivative (pirated) editions. "Don Quixote" had been growing in favour, and its author's name was now known beyond the Pyrenees. By August 1605 there were two Madrid editions, two published in Lisbon, and one in Valencia. A second edition was produced with additional copyrights for Aragon and Portugal, which publisher Francisco de Robles secured. Sale of these publishing rights deprived Cervantes of further financial profit on ''Part One.'' In 1607, an edition was printed in Brussels. Robles, the Madrid publisher, found it necessary to meet demand with a third edition, a seventh publication in all, in 1608. Popularity of the book in Italy was such that a Milan bookseller issued an Italian edition in 1610. Yet another Brussels edition was called for in 1611.

In 1613, Cervantes published the ''Novelas Ejemplares'', dedicated to the Maecenas of the day, the Conde de Lemos. Eight and a half years after ''Part One'' had appeared, we get the first hint of a forthcoming ''Segunda Parte'' (Part Two). "You shall see shortly," Cervantes says, "the further exploits of Don Quixote and humours of Sancho Panza." ''Don Quixote, Part Two'', published by the same press as its predecessor, appeared late in 1615, and quickly reprinted in Brussels and Valencia (1616) and Lisbon (1617). Part two capitalizes on the potential of the first while developing and diversifying the material without sacrificing familiarity. Many people agree that it is richer and more profound. Parts One and Two were published as one edition in Barcelona in 1617. Historically, Cervantes's work has been said to have “smiled Spain’s chivalry away”, suggesting that Don Quixote as a chivalric satire contributed to the demise of Spanish Chivalry.

English editions in translation[link]

There are many translations of the book, and it has been adapted many times in shortened versions. Many derivative editions were also being written at the time, as was the custom of envious or unscrupulous writers. Seven years after the ''Parte Primera'' appeared, ''Don Quixote'' had been translated into French, German, Italian, and English, with the first French translation of 'Part II' appearing in 1618, and the first English translation in 1620. One abridged adaptation is authored by Agustín Sánchez, which runs slightly over 150 pages, cutting away about 750 pages.

Thomas Shelton's English translation of the ''First Part'' appeared in 1612. Shelton is a somewhat elusive figure: some claim Shelton was actually a friend of Cervantes, although there is no credible evidence to support this claim. Although Shelton's version is cherished by some, according to John Ormsby and Samuel Putnam, it was far from satisfactory as a carrying over of Cervantes's text. Shelton's translation of the novel's ''Second Part'' appeared in 1620.

Near the end of the 17th century, John Phillips, a nephew of poet John Milton, published what is considered by Putnam the worst English translated version. The translation, as literary critics claim, was not based on Cervantes' text but mostly upon a French work by Filleau de Saint-Martin and upon notes which Thomas Shelton had written previously. Around 1700, a version by Pierre Antoine Motteux appeared. Ormsby considered this version "worse than worthless". What future translator Samuel Putnam called "the prevailing slapstick quality of this work, especially where Sancho Panza is involved, the obtrusion of the obscene where it is found in the original, and the slurring of difficulties through omissions or expanding upon the text" all made the Motteux version irresponsible. In 1742, the Charles Jervas translation appeared, posthumously. Through a printer's error, it came to be known, and is still known, as "the Jarvis translation". The most scholarly and accurate English translation of the novel up to that time, it has been criticized by some as being too stiff. Nevertheless, it became the most frequently reprinted translation of the novel until about 1885. Another 18th century translation into English was that of Tobias Smollett, himself a novelist. Like the ''Jarvis'' translation, it continues to be reprinted today.

Most modern translators take as their model the 1885 translation by John Ormsby. It is said that his translation was the most honest of all translations, without expansions upon the text or changing of the proverbs.

In 1922, Arvid Paulson and Clayton Edwards published a now-forgotten expurgated children's version printed under the title ''The Story of Don Quixote'' which has nevertheless recently been published on Project Gutenberg. It retains as much of the text as it could while leaving out the risque sections as well as those chapters that young readers might consider dull, and embellishes a great deal on Cervantes's original text (the title page actually gives credit to the two translators as if they were the authors, and leaves out any mention of Cervantes).

The most widely read English-language translations of the mid-20th century are by Samuel Putnam (1949), J. M. Cohen (1950; Penguin Classics), and Walter Starkie (1957). The last English translation of the novel in the 20th century was by Burton Raffel, published in 1996. The 21st century has already seen three new translations of the novel into English. The first is by John D. Rutherford and the second by Edith Grossman. One ''New York Times'' reviewer called Grossman's translation a "major literary achievement" and another called it the "most transparent and least impeded among more than a dozen English translations going back to the 17th century." In 2005, the year of the novel's 400th anniversary, Tom Lathrop published a new English translation of the novel, based on a lifetime of specialized study of the novel and its history.

See also [link]

''Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda'' – author of a spurious sequel to ''Don Quixote'', which in turn is referenced in the actual sequel

List of ''Don Quixote'' characters

List of works influenced by ''Don Quixote'' – including a gallery of paintings and illustrations

The 100 Best Books of All Time

''Tirant lo Blanc'' – one of the chivalric novels frequently referenced by Don Quixote

''Amadis de Gaula'' – one of the chivalric novels found in the library of Don Quixote

António José da Silva – writer of ''Vida do Grande Dom Quixote de la Mancha e do Gordo Sancho Pança'' (1733)

''Belianis'' – one of the chivalric novels found in the library of Don Quixote

References and sources[link]

Further reading[link]

Bloom, Harold (Ed.) (2000) ''Cervantes's Don Quixote (Modern Critical Interpretations)''. Chelsea House Publishers ISBN 0791059227

D' Haen, Theo (Ed.) (2009) ''International Don Quixote''. Editions Rodopi B.V. ISBN 9042025832

Echevarría, Roberto González (Ed.) (2005) ''Cervantes' Don Quixote: a casebook'' Oxford University Press USA ISBN 0195169387

Duran, Manuel and Rogg, Fay R. (2006) "Fighting Windmills: Encounters with Don Quixote". Yale University Press ISBN 9780300110227

Johnson, Carroll B (Ed.) (2006) ''Don Quijote Across Four Centuries: 1605–2005''. Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs ISBN 1588710882

Graf, E. C. (2007) ''Cervantes and Modernity: Four Essays on Don Quijote''. Bucknell University Press ISBN 0-8387-5655-7

External links[link]

Don Quixote, Volume 1 (volunteer-read audiobook) from LibriVox at Internet Archive.

"One Master, Many Cervantes", by Ilan Stavans. A history of English translations. ''Humanities'', September/October 2008. Volume 29, Number 5. Accessed 2010-08-04

The full text of Don Quijote in the original Spanish.

Background information about Don Quijote and Cervantes

Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1605 Category:1605 novels Category:Fictional knights Category:Metafictional works Category:Literary archetypes by name Category:Novels by Miguel de Cervantes Category:Prison writings Category:Psychological novels Category:Satirical novels Category:Self-reflexive novels Category:Spanish novels Category:Spain in fiction Category:Fictional Spanish people Category:Picaresque novels Category:Don Quixote characters Category:1600s fantasy novels

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About the concept of a Messiah in religion, see Messiah.

Promised Messiah redirects here, for the Jewish Messiah see Jesus

Name	Founder of The Ahmadiyya Movement
Title	|image Hadhrat_Mirza_Ghulam_Ahmad2.jpg|thumb|
Full name	Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Birth date	February 13, 1835
Birth place	Qadian, Sikh Empire
Death date	May 26, 1908
Death place	Lahore
Resting place	Bahishti Maqbara, Qadian, India
Spouse	Hurmat BibiNusrat Jehan Begum
Children	Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad Mirza Bashir AhmadMirza Sharif AhmadMubarika Begum Amatul Hafeez Begum
Parents	Mirza Ghulam Murtaza Chiragh Bibi
Signature	}}

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad (Arabic: ميرزا غلام أحمد; Urdu: ; February 13, 1835 – May 26, 1908 CE, or Shawal 14, 1250 – Rabi' al-thani 24, 1326 AH) was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the fourteenth Islamic century, the Promised Messiah (Second Coming of Christ), and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days. He declared that Jesus (Isa) had in fact survived the crucifixion and later died a natural death after having migrated towards Kashmir, and that he had appeared in the spirit and power of Jesus.

He traveled extensively across the subcontinent of India preaching his religious ideas and ideals and won substantial following within his lifetime. He is known to have engaged in numerous debates and dialogues with the Muslim, Christian and Hindu priesthood and leadership. Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam on March 23, 1889. The mission of the movement, according to him, was the propagation of Islam in its pristine form.

Ghulam Ahmad authored around 100 books on various religious, spiritual and theological issues. He advocated a peaceful propagation of Islam and emphatically argued against the necessity of Jihad in its military form in the present age.

Life[link]

Early life and education[link]

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born on February 13, 1839, in Qadian, India, the surviving child of twins born to an affluent family. His father's name was Mirza Gulam Quader. He was born in Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh where the means of communication were not advanced and majority of the people remained illiterate. He was of Persian descent. At the time of his birth,Christianity had come to India. It was spread all of India except Punjab with the support of British Raj. As a child, he received his early education at home. He learned to read the Arabic text of the Qur'an and studied basic Arabic grammar and the Persian language from a teacher named Fazil-e-Illahi. At the age of 10, he learnt from teacher who was a good and pious man named Fazl Ahmad. Again at the age of 17 or 18, he learnt from a teacher named Gul Ali Shah. In addition, he also studied some works on medicine from his father, Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, who was a physician.

From 1864 to 1868, upon his father's wishes, he worked as a clerk under in Sialkot which was a rare case at that time.At that time a strong anti- British movement was in progress in India. Especially, Muslim leaders called for armed jihad and almost every Muslim groups supported the call of jihad, apart from Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

After 1868, he returned to Qadian, as per his father's wishes, where he was entrusted to look after some estate affairs. During all this time, Ahmad was known as a social recluse because he would spend most of his time in seclusion studying religious books and praying in the local mosque. As time passed, he began to engage more with the Christian missionaries, particularly in defending Islam against their criticism. He would often confront them in public debates, especially the ones based in the town of Batala.

In 1886, certain leaders of the Arya Samaj held discussion and debate with Ghulam Ahmad about the truthfulness of Islam and asked for a sign to prove that Islam was a living religion. In order to dedicate special prayers for this purpose and so as to seek further divine guidance, Ghulam Ahmad traveled to Hoshiarpur upon what he claimed was divine instruction. Here, he spent forty days in seclusion, a practice known as chilla-nashini. He traveled accompanied by three companions to the small two-storied house of one of his followers and was left alone in a room where his companions would bring him food and leave without speaking to him as he prayed and contemplated. He only left the house on Fridays and used an abandoned mosque for Jumu'ah (Friday prayers). It is during this period that he declared God had given him the glad tidings of an illustrious son.

Taking of the covenant[link]

Ghulam Ahmad claimed divine appointment as a reformer as early as 1882 but did not take any pledge of allegiance or initiation. In December 1888, Ahmad announced that God had ordained him that his followers should enter into a Bay'ah with him and pledge their allegiance to him. In January 1889, he published a pamphlet in which he laid out ten conditions or issues to which the initiate would abide by for the rest of his life. On 23 March 1889, he founded the Ahmadiyya community by taking a pledge from forty followers. The formal method of joining the Ahmadiyya movement included joining hands and reciting a pledge, although physical contact was not always necessary. This method of allegiance continued for the rest of his life and after his death by his successors.

His claim [link]

Ahmad proclaimed that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi and that he was fulfillment of various prophecies. This sparked great controversy, especially among the Muslim and Christian clergy. Ahmad's followers say that he never claimed to be the same physical Jesus who lived nineteen centuries earlier. Ahmad claimed that Jesus died a natural death, in contradiction to the traditional Muslim view of Jesus' physical ascension to heaven and the traditional Christian belief of Jesus' crucifixion. He claimed in his books that there was a general decay of Islamic life and a dire need of a messiah. He argued that just as Jesus had appeared 1400 years after the time of Moses, the promised messiah—i.e. the Mahdi—must also appear in the 14th century after the appearance of Muhammad.

In ''Tazkiratush-Shahadatain'', he wrote about the fulfillment of various prophecies. In it, he enumerated a variety of prophecies and descriptions from both the Qur'an and Hadith relating to the advent of the Mahdi and the descriptions of his age, which he ascribed to himself and his age. These include assertions that he was physically described in the Hadith and manifested various other signs; some of them being wider in scope, such as focusing on world events coming to certain points, certain conditions within the Muslim community, and varied social, political, economic, and physical conditions.

Post-claim [link]

In time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claims of being the Mujaddid (reformer) of his era became more explicit. In one of his most well-known and praised works, ''Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya'', a work consisting of a number of volumes, he claimed to be the Messiah of Islam, which has proven a strong challenge for Muslims to accept, since traditional Islamic thought maintained that Jesus will return in the flesh during the last age. Ahmad, by contrast, asserted that Jesus had in fact survived crucifixion and died of old age much later in Kashmir, where he had migrated. According to Ahmad, the promised Mahdi was a symbolic reference to a spiritual leader and not a military leader in the person of Jesus Christ as is believed by many Muslims. With this proclamation, he also rejected the idea of armed Jihad and argued that the conditions for such Jihad are not present in this age, which requires defending Islam by the pen and tongue but not with the sword.

Reaction of religious scholars[link]

See also Rejection of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

In time, the religious scholars turned against him, and he was often branded as a heretic. His opponents accused him of working for the British Government due to the termination of armed Jihad, since his claims of being the Mahdi were made around the same time as the Mahdi of Sudan (Muhammad Ahmad). Many years after his death, he was again accused of working for the British to curb the Jihadi ideology of Muslims.

Following his claim to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, one of his adversaries prepared a Fatwa (decree) of disbelief against Ahmad, declaring him a Kafir (disbeliever), a deceiver, and a liar, and him and his followers to be permissible of being killed. This decree was taken all around India and was signed by some two hundred religious scholars.

Some years later, a prominent Muslim leader and scholar, Ahmed Raza Khan, was to travel to the Hejaz to collect the opinions of the religious scholars of Makkah and Madina. He compiled these opinions in his work ''Hussam ul Harmain'' (The sword of two sanctuaries ''on the slaughter-point of blasphemy and falsehood''); in it, Ghulam Ahmad was again labeled an apostate. The unanimous consensus of about thirty-four religious scholars was that Ghulam Ahmad's beliefs were blasphemous and tantamount to apostasy and that he must be punished by imprisonment and, if necessary, by execution.

Journey to Delhi[link]

Ghulam Ahmad traveled to Delhi, which was at the time considered a centre of religious learning and home to many prominent religious leaders, in 1891, with the intention of distinguishing what he believed to be the truth from falsehood and attempting to make it openly manifest for people through these influential divines. He published an advertisement in which he invited the scholars to accept his claim and to engage in a public debate with him regarding the life and death of Isa (Jesus), particularly Maulana Nazeer Hussein, who was hailed as the greatest shaikh and a leading religious scholar. He also proposed three conditions that were essential for such a debate: that there should be a police presence to maintain peace, the debate should be in written form (for the purpose of recording what was said), and that the debate should be on the subject of the death of Jesus.

Eventually, it was settled, and Ahmad traveled to the Jama Masjid Delhi (main mosque) of Delhi accompanied by twelve of his followers, where some 5,000 people were gathered. Before the debate started, there was a discussion on the conditions, which led to the conclusion that the debate should not be upon the death of Jesus, but upon the claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He explained that his claim could only be discussed after the death of Jesus was proven, for Jesus was considered by many to be living and the one who will descend to Earth himself. Only when this belief was refuted could his claim to be the Messiah be discussed.

Upon this, there was a clamor among the crowds, and Ahmad was informed that the other party alleged that he was at odds with Islamic beliefs and was a disbeliever; therefore, it was not proper to debate with him unless he clarified his beliefs. Ahmad wrote his beliefs on a piece of paper and had it read aloud, but due to the clamor among the people, it could not be heard. Seeing that the crowd was drifting out of control and that violence was imminent, the police superintendent gave orders to disperse the audience, and the debate did not take place. A few days later, however, a written debate did take place between Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Maulwi Muhammad Bashir of Bhopal, which was later published.

Ghulam Ahmad is known to have traveled extensively across Northern India during this period of his life and to have held various debates with influential religious leaders.

Challenge to opponents[link]

Ahmad published a book called ''The Heavenly Decree'', in which he challenged his opponents to a "spiritual duel" in which the question of whether someone was a Muslim or not would be settled by God based on the four criteria laid out in the Qur'an, namely, that a perfect believer will frequently receive glad tidings from God, that he will be given awareness about hidden matters and events of the future from God, that most of his prayers will be fulfilled and that he will exceed others in understanding novel finer points, subtleties and deeper meanings of the Qur'an.

The sun and moon eclipse [link]

After announcing his claim to be the Messiah and Mahdi, his opponents demanded that he should produce the "heavenly sign" detailed in the tradition attributed to the 7th-century Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, also known as Muhammad bin Ali, in which it is stated about the appearance of the Mahdi:

Ahmadis maintain that this prophecy was fulfilled in 1894/1895, about three years after Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed himself to be the Promised Mahdi and Messiah, with the lunar and solar eclipse during the month of Ramadhan. Ghulam Ahmad declared that this was a sign of his truth and was in fulfillment of the tradition or prophecy.

The occurrence has, however, faced some criticism, with critics of Ahmad asserting that this was a weak tradition with unreliable narrators, one that cannot be traced back to Muhammad himself, and that such eclipses have taken place before. Ahmadis however argue that such eclipses have never taken place as a sign for the truth of any person, and that this sign being mentioned in other religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Qur'an and the fact that it actually took place while there was a claimant further enhances the reliability of the tradition.

The eclipses being a sign of the Mahdi are also mentioned specifically in the ''Letters of Rabbani'' by Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, who is considered to be ''Mujaddid Alf Thānī'', meaning the "reviver of the second millennium" (of Islam).

Lawsuit[link]

In 1897, a Christian missionary, Henry Martyn Clarke, filed a lawsuit of attempted murder against Ahmad at the court of District Magistrate Captain William Douglas in the city of Ludhiana. The charge laid against him was that he hired a man by the name of Abdul Hameed to assassinate Clarke. However, he was not detained by the police and was declared innocent by the then-Magistrate Captain Douglas.

Ahmad was offered permission to sue the plaintiff. However, he declined to do so, stating that he is answerable to God.

The Revealed Sermon[link]

In 1900, on the occasion of the festival of Eid ul-Adha, he is said to have delivered an hour-long sermon extempore in Arabic expounding the meaning and philosophy of sacrifice. This episode is celebrated as one of the important events of the history of Ahmadiyya. The sermon was simultaneously written down by two of his companions and came to be known as the ''Khutba Ilhamiyya'', the revealed or inspired sermon. Ahmadiyya literature states that during this sermon, there was a change in his voice, he appeared as if in a trance, in the grip of an unseen hand, and as if a voice from the unknown had made him its mouthpiece. After the sermon, ended Ahmad fell into prostration, followed by the rest of the congregation, as a sign of gratitude towards God.

Ahmad wrote later:

The Lahore controversy with Pir Meher Ali Shah[link]

Pir Meher Ali Shah of Golra Sharif is recognised by some as the person at the forefront in striving to bring Ghulam Ahmad and his movement down. He penned the book on the "apostasy" of Ahmad titled ''Sayf-e-Chishtia''. Meher Ali was one of the spiritual leaders whom Ghulam Ahmad had challenged collectively to a "prayer duel". On July 20, 1900, Ghulam Ahmad issued a poster in which he proposed a gathering at Lahore to hold a written contest in Arabic consisting of writing a commentary on forty verses (selected by ballot) of the Qur'an after invoking divine assistance.

According to the poster, the commentaries were to be written within seven hours and in the presence of witnesses, without the assistance of a book or any person. An hour was to be given for preparation. The commentaries were to span at least twenty pages, purely in Arabic. After their completion and signatures by the contestants, they were to be read out to three learned persons for adjudication, nominated and seen to by Meher Ali Shah. After listening to the two commentaries, the judges would pronounce on solemn triple oath which one was superior and written "with Divine endorsement".

Pir Meher Ali Shah accepted the challenge to such a contest, provided that first an oral debate take place between him and Ghulam Ahmad on the issue of his claims. Ghulam Ahmad refused to debate. Ahmad's followers claim that he had categorically vowed in ''Anjam-e-Atham'' not to engage in any more debates, as he judged them ineffective at convincing the religious clergy to reform (the reason why he had challenged Meher Ali Shah to such a decisive contest in the first place and not to a debate); rather, he would invoke God for divine intervention by holding such contests or "prayer duels", which he called ''Ejazi-Muqabala'', or "miraculous contest", between him and his opponents, primarily Christian missionaries and Muslim scholars and divines.

This remains a point of contention between the followers of Ghulam Ahmad and those of Pir Meher Ali Shah. According to the followers of Meher Ali Shah, he travelled to Lahore, as per Ghulam Ahmad's proposal, where a large gathering of scholars and laymen had collected, and according to followers of Ghulam Ahmad, did so without notice. Ghulam Ahmad did not show up. Ahmadis argue that the condition of oral debate proposed by Meher Ali Shah was an indirect refusal of Ghulam Ahmad's challenge and a deliberate attempt to trap him, for if he had accepted, he would have broken his promise with God by engaging in debates, but if he had declined, it would have been assumed that Meher Ali Shah was victorious and Ghulam Ahmad had withdrawn. Followers of Meher Ali Shah contend that he accepted the challenge even without the condition of oral debate, but Ghulam Ahmad failed to turn up.

Ghulam Ahmad later issued another poster describing his beliefs and requesting a written response from the Pir. Later, he published an advertisement proposing a battle of written commentary on the opening chapter of the Quran to settle their dispute. The two commentaries would be printed and published in book form within seventy days. A price of Rs.500 would be paid to Mehr Ali Shah if his commentary was adjudged by three scholars to be superior or equal to that of Ghulam Ahmad. The party failing to write and publish the proposed commentary within the stated period would be regarded as a liar, and no further proof for that purpose would be needed. Ghulam Ahmad published his planned commentary under the title ''Ijaz-ul-Masih'' (''Miracle of the Massiah'').

As per the challenge, Per Meher Ali Shah was to write a commentary on the opening chapter of the Quran in Arabic. However, instead, Per Mehr Ali wrote a book in Urdu named ''Saif-e-Chishtiyyi''.

Slogan[link]

Challenge to John Alexander Dowie[link]

In 1899, a Scottish-born American clergyman by the name of John Alexander Dowie had laid claim to be the forerunner of the second coming of Christ. Ghulam Ahmad exchanged a series of letters with him between 1903 and 1907. Ghulam Ahmad challenged him to a prayer duel, where both would call upon God to expose the other as a false prophet. Ghulam Ahmad stated:

Dowie declined the challenge, calling Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the "silly Mohammedan Messiah".Ghulam Ahmad prophesied:

The challenge of "prayer duel" was made by Mirza in September 1902. Dowie died before Mirza, in March 1907. The ''Dictionary of American Biography'' states that after having been deposed during a revolt in which his own family was involved, Dowie endeavoured to recover his authority via the law courts without success and that he may have been a victim of some form of mania, as he suffered from hallucinations during his last illness.

Encounter with the Agapemonites[link]

In September 1902, a man by the name of Rev. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott proclaimed himself the Messiah and also claimed to be God while preaching in the Church of the Ark of the Covenant in Clapton, London. This church was originally built by the Agapemonites, a religious movement founded by the Anglican priest Henry James Prince.

When the news of his claim reached India, Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, a disciple of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was informed of it and wrote to Pigott informing him of the claim of Ahmad and requesting more information about his own claim. Pigott did not reply directly, but a letter was received from his secretary along with two advertisements, one carrying the title "The Ark of Noah". When the advertisements and letter were read out in the presence of Ahmad, he replied:

After having prayed about Pigott, Ahmad claimed to have seen in a dream "some books on which was written three times: Holy, Holy, Holy" followed by a revelation:

Ahmad issued an advertisement forewarning Pigott of the "Punishment that awaits him" if he did not repent of his irreverent claim, which is said to have been widely publicized in English newspapers. It is said that thenceforth, Pigott became silent and did not repeat his claim. He left London and retreated to a small village in Somerset, changed his name, seeking a life of anonymity, and was defrocked by the Anglican Church following the birth of three sons from one of his many spiritual brides. He eventually died in March 1927.

The White Minaret[link]

According to Islamic tradition, Jesus, upon his second advent, would descend with or near a White Minaret disputably to the east of Damascus or in the eastern side of Damascus. Ghulam Ahmad argued that this Hadith does not explain whether the minaret will be within the eastern side of Damascus or to the eastern side of the city. According to him, this prophecy was fulfilled with his advent in Qadian, a town situated to the east of Damascus, and the significance of the minaret symbolic. The minaret, according to him, symbolised the spread of the "light of Islam", its message reaching far and wide, and the "supremacy of Islam", which was to tower up as it were like a minaret in the time of the promised one. The prophecy is also believed to be pointing to an age of enlightenment and one where there are numerous facilities for communication and transport, thereby making conveyance and proselytising easier. This was reflective of the physical purpose that minarets were used in medieval Islamic societies, the efficient communication of the call to prayer to a wider audience in the locality. Ghulam Ahmad claimed that God had revealed to him:

In 1903, Ahmad laid the foundation of a minaret to commemorate the prophecy. This, according to him, will represent the physical as well as spiritual aspects of Islam with a light and a clock fixed on its top symbolising the "light of Islam" spreading far and wide and "so man will recognize his time", and a Muezzin to give the call to prayer five times a day symbolising an invitation to Islam. The construction of this minaret was completed in 1916 and has since become a symbol and distinctive mark in Ahmadiyyat.

Heavenly Graveyard[link]

Ahmad mentioned the establishment of a "Heavenly Graveyard" (Bahishti Maqbara) under divine commandment in his booklet ''Al-Wasiyyat (The Will)''. It is stated that in a spiritual vision, Ahmad was shown a plot of land called "Bahishti Maqbara", containing the graves of such members of his community who are destined to be in heaven. In order to fulfill this vision, Ahmad donated a parcel of his land in Qadian for those members of the community who fulfilled certain conditions:

Whoever desires to be buried in this graveyard should contribute towards the expenses of its maintenance according to his capacity.

Whoever desires to be buried therein should make a testamentary disposition that one tenth of his property shall, under direction of the Movement, be devoted to the propagation of Islam, and carrying out the teachings of the Quran. It will be open to every righteous person whose faith is perfect to provide for this purpose in his will more than one tenth, but it shall not be less.

Whoever shall lead a righteous life and abstain from all that is prohibited and shall not do anything that amounts to association of something with God or to innovation in the faith. He should be a true and sincere Muslim. (''Al-Wasiyyat'', pp. 16–19)

Over time, the cemetery in Qadian has expanded, while another one was established in Rabwah, Pakistan, after the partition of India. Established under the direction Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, the second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the cemetery in Rabwah has over 10,000 graves.

Last journey[link]

Towards the end of 1907 and early 1908, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to have received numerous revelations informing him of his imminent death. In April 1908, he traveled to Lahore with his family and companions. Here, he gave many lectures. A banquet was arranged for dignitaries where Ghulam Ahmad, upon request, spoke for some two hours explaining his claims, teachings and speaking in refutation of objections raised against his person; here, he preached reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims. He completed writing his last work, entitled ''Message of Peace'', a day before his death.

Death[link]

While he was in Lahore at the home of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain (who was also his physician), Mirza Ghulam Ahmad fell ill from excessive weakness. His body was subsequently taken to Qadian and buried there. A few years before his death, Ahmad claimed to have received several prophecies relating to his upcoming death. ''''''

Marriages and children[link]

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad married twice. His first wife was his paternal cousin Hurmat Bibi. Later, they separated and lived separately for a long time. At the time of his second marriage, Hurmat Bibi gave him the permission to live with the second wife and decided against a divorce.

Children[link]

With his first wife, Hurmat Bibi, he had two sons:

# Mirza Sultan Ahmad (1853–1931) # Mirza Fazal Ahmad (1855–1904)

With his second wife, Nusrat Jehan Begum, he had ten children:

Five children died in infancy: # Ismat (1886–1891) # Bashir (1887–1888) # Shaukat (1891–1892) # Mirza Mubarik Ahmad (1899–1907) # Amtul Naseer (1903-1903)

Five children lived longer:

# Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad (1889–1965) # Mirza Bashir Ahmad (1893–1963) # Mirza Sharif Ahmad (1895–1961) # (Nawab) Mubarika Begum (1897–1977) # (Nawab) Sahiba Amtul Hafeez Begum (1904–1987)

Legacy[link]

One of the main sources of dispute during his lifetime and continuing since then is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's use of the terms ''Nabi'' ("prophet") and ''Rasool'' ("messenger") when referring to himself. Muslims consider the prophet Muhammad to be the last of the prophets and believe that Ahmad's use of these terms is a violation of not only the rudimentary concept of the finality of prophethood, but the Qur'an itself. His followers fall into two camps in this regards. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believe in a literal interpretation of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophethood (with some qualifications) and is currently headed by Ahmad's fifth Caliph, or successor, carrying the title of Khalifatul Masih, an institution believed to have been established soon after Ahmad's death. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement believe in an allegorical interpretation of these two terms and is administered by a body of people called the ''Anjuman Ishat-e-Islam'' ("movement for the propagation of Islam"), headed by an Emir. This, among other reasons, caused a split in the movement soon after Ahmad's death.

Followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad are considered non-Muslims in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and have faced relentless persecution of various types over the years. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament amended the Pakistani constitution to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims for purposes of the constitution of the Islamic Republic. In 1984, a series of changes in the Pakistan Penal Code sections relating to blasphemy were made, which, in essence, made it illegal for Ahmadis to preach their creed, leading to arrests and prosecutions. However, no one has been executed yet, even though it is allowed under the law.

In 2007, the Ahmadiyya were banned from practising their faith openly in the state of Belarus and given a similar status to other banned religious groups in the country.

Relative to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, some mainstream Muslim opinion towards the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has been more accepting, with the Lahore Ahmadiyya literature finding easier compatibility with Orthodox Muslims and some Orthodox Muslim scholars considering the members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as Muslims.

A number of modern Muslim scholars and Muslim intellectuals seem to conform to the idea of peaceful Jihad as a struggle for reform through civil means, in accordance with Mirza Ghulam Ahmed's standpoint on the issue. Furthermore, some Islamic scholars have opined that Jesus has died (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's assertion) or expressed their own confusion on this matter, though the majority orthodox position of most Muslims with regard to this issue has not changed.

Views[link]

Different scholars had different views on him. Maulvi Muhammad Hussein of Batala who was a significant leader of Ahl-e-Hadith sect. He was one of his key opponents and his fellow from youth on the writing of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya that in his journal. Maulvi Sirajuddin, who is father of Zafar Ali Khan in his newspaper ''Zamindar'' on the death of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote. Molvi Noor Mohammad Naqshbandi had his praised contributions for Islam and against Christians.

Criticism[link]

Due to the nature of his claims and teachings, he had been a subject of criticism throughout his life and has been ever since his death. He and his movement are still regarded by most Muslim scholars as kuffar (unbelievers) and as guilty for an attempted schism in Islam.

Ahmadis believe that Mirza Ghulahm Ahmad's writings are taken completely out of context by critics. For example, critics may show parts of writing that support their view, but fail to show the parts of writing that contradict their view.

Relationship with the British[link]

Many orthodox Muslims feel that Ghulam Ahmad was aided in his mission by the British government, whose stated policy of "divide and rule" was expressed in their approval of Ahmad's introducing a dissident faction within Islam. Ghulam Ahmad is criticised by the orthodox Muslims for his support of the British Government in India and maintain that he and his associates went on publishing in favor of British control and even tried to convince Muslims in other Muslim countries that a British government would be in their favor. It is alleged that he had collaborated with the British against Muslims. They give reference to one of his books in which he said:

His followers reject this criticism and point out that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was constantly engaged in controversies with the British missionaries. Western historians have recorded this effort as one of the features of Ahmad's legacy. Francis Robinson states: His followers also say that Ahmad openly supported the British government in India, and therefore, his critics' consideration of this being tantamount to "conspiring" with the British is baseless. They further argue that his open support for the British was on account of the religious freedom the British extended to the Muslims, as opposed to the preceding Sikh rule in Punjab wherein Muslims were persecuted and their religious freedom curtailed, and that one of the reasons for his expression of loyalty towards the British was due to him being repeatedly presented as a threat and danger to the government with rebellious intent by his opponents such as Maulvi Muhammad Hussein, who warned the government in the following words:

It is also pointed out by them that some prominent mainstream Muslim leaders of the time had also openly expressed similar sentiments for the British rule for the same reasons. Such leaders included Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Maulvi Muhammad Hussain Batalvi, Deputy Nazir Ahmad and members of Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam. Furthermore, the famous founders of the Muslim League had also expressed similar sentiments of loyalty to the British Government at around the same time as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. In summary, the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad contend that his views towards the British rulers at the time were the same as those of numerous other well-regarded Muslim leaders of the same time.

Termination of Jihad[link]

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's critics allege that he had terminated Jihad, which is an important Islamic requirement, to appease the British. His followers, however, argue that he never terminated Jihad, in the broader sense of the word, but only forbade physical fighting for the sake of religion or against a government that gives freedom of religion. An official British government report of 1901 states:

Ahmad wrote:

According to Ahmad this age did not require defending Islam by the sword but that the Jihad of this age was to be carried out by preaching and defending Islam by speech and by the pen. In another place he writes:

Plagiarism[link]

Ghulam Ahmad has been accused of plagiarising, and altering the words of Arab linguists to appear as his own. He claimed that his book ''Hujjatullah'' [''Convincing Proof from God''] was of superior Arabic. However, his critics allege that several sentences and paragraphs in this text are taken directly without alteration, from ''Maqamat al-Hariri'', the best known poetry collection of the Arabic scholar and poet Al-Hariri of Basra. For this reason, his claim to divine instruction in Arabic is not accepted in Islamic Orthodoxy. Ahmadis, however, claim that the alleged instances of plagiarism are not true because Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had deliberately inserted the writings of Al-Hariri with his own and then openly declared that he had done as such as a challenge to his critics to compare and separate the two. His followers claim that as clearly stated by him in the beginning of his book ''Hujjatullah'' it was only after his use of Arabic was labelled inadequate, ungrammatical and 'unchaste' by his opponents that Ghulam Ahmad deliberately amalgamated his own writings with that of Al-Hariri's in order to expose his adversaries; whom he called upon to distinguish between his writings and that of Al-Hariri’s. Ghulam Ahmad stated:

Disrespect of Jesus[link]

Following are few excerpts from his writings, based on which Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is accused of disrespecting Jesus.

Ahmadiyya Muslims believe that this allegation is wrong, and that this allegation is raised without properly considering the context. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad said

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad responded to allegations as follows:

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad also said

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad published a poster on December 20, 1895, and explained his position as follows:

See also [link]

Yuz Asaf

Mohammadi Begum

List of founders of religious traditions

List of people who have claimed to be Jesus

Khalifatul Masih

People claiming to be the Mahdi

Seal of the prophets

Literature [link]

Yohanan Friedmann, ''Prophecy Continuous - Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background''; Oxford University Press (2003) ISBN 965264014X

''Jesus in India'', Ahmadiyya Muslim Foreign Mission Department, 1978, ISBN 978-1-8537-2723-8; Original ''Masih Hindustan Mein'', Oriental & Religious Publications Ltd., Rabwah (Online)

''The Essence of Islam'', Islam International Publications, Ltd.; 2nd edition (2004), ISBN 1-8537-2765-2

''Teachings of Islam'', Kessinger Publishing (August 2003), ISBN 978-0-76617614-0

''The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam'', The London Mosque Publishing, 1979

Iain Adamson: ''Ahmad, The Guided One'', Islam International Publications, 2000

S. R. Valentine, 'Islam & the Ahmadiyya Jama'at', Hurst & Co, London/New York, 2008

Notes[link]

External links [link]

Official Website of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Official Website of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement

Complete List of the Works of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Islam-Ahmadiyya specifically caters to an Arabic-speaking audience. Like Al Islam itself, Islam-Ahmadiyya is home to a wide variety of content including books, articles and multimedia content.

How To Distinguish Between A True Prophet And A False Prophet - Truthfulness of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani (as) according to Holy Qur'an.

Category:1835 births Category:1908 deaths Category:Punjabi people Category:Indian religious leaders Category:Self-declared messiahs Category:Prophets Category:People from Gurdaspur Category:Indian Ahmadis Category:Mujaddid Category:Indian people of Iranian descent

ar:غلام أحمد القادياني az:Mirzə Qulam Əhməd Qadiyani bn:মির্যা গোলাম আহ্‌মেদ de:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad es:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad eo:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad fa:میرزا غلام احمد fr:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad hi:गुलाम अहमद id:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad it:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad he:מירזא גולאם אחמד אל-קאדיאני ms:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad nl:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad pnb:مرزا غلام احمد pl:Mirza Gulam Ahmad pt:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ru:Мирза Гулам Ахмад sq:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad simple:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sv:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ta:மிர்சா குலாம் அஹ்மத் ur:مرزا غلام احمد zh:米尔扎·古拉姆·艾哈迈德

Shaikh Ghulam Ahmad (23 May 1923 – 20 September 2003) was a Pakistan Air Force engineer officer, fighter pilot and military engineer who formed Resources Company Limited, a holding company that promotes resource development in Pakistan. He was Managing Director and former chairman of Pakistan Chrome Mines Ltd., the largest and oldest chrome mining company in Pakistan.

He wrote ''Unique and Everliving'', a biography of prophet Muhammad. The book was written over a period of five years. The book is published by Ferozeson's Ltd., a book publisher in Pakistan.

Life and Education[link]

He was born in the city of Poonch, in Poonch District of Kashmir, on 23 May 1923. He was educated in Poonch at a school where his father, Shaikh Ghulam Rasul, was the headmaster. He migrated to Pakistan, from Kashmir along with his family. Before partition of India, his father was Head Master of High School in Poonch, while his younger brother Ghulam Rabani graduated in ''law'' from Aligarh University. Shaikh Ghulam Rabani, migrated to Pakistan and was appointed as a district court Judge. Later Shaikh Ghulam Rabani joined the Pakistan Foreign Service and served as Pakistans' Ambassador to numerous countries in Asia and North Africa including, Tunisia, North Korea and Romania. He married to Jamila Begum at Rehara, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan on 11 May 1949. He had three sons and two daughters, he received a B.Sc (honours) degree in Physics and a Masters in Statistics from the University of Punjab in Lahore. He received a Postgraduate Diploma in Natural Resource Development ITC, Delft, Holland and completed postgraduate studies for a Ph. D in Civil Engineering at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

His grand father fought along with Tipu Sultan against the British East India Company. While his father Shaikh Ghulam Rasul was the head master of the Middle School in Poonch and Rawalakot. His father-in law fought against the Nazis in North Africa and Europe.

Family[link]

Mr. Ahmad had three sons and two daughters, His daughter Dr. Rehana Kausar MD was the first woman doctor from Rawalakot. His other daughter is also a Doctor while his three sons are engineers. His grandson, a Captain was awarded the Purple Heart for his military service as a United States Army Officer in Iraq.

He had three brothers, Shaikh Ghulam Rabbani, was the Ambassador of Pakistan to North Korea, Tunisia and Romania. Shaikh Gilani Kamran, was a Professor of English Literature at Government College Lahore and an author who wrote over 35 books and his youngest brother Saeed Ahmad was a Pakistani Businessman.

Military career[link]

name	Ghulam Ahmad
birth date
death date
placeofburial coordinates
allegiance	British India
branch
serviceyears	1947-1948
rank
unit	No. 1 Squadron, Indian Air Force No. 9 Squadron Griffins, P. A. F.
battles	World War IIBurma CampaignIndo-Pakistani War of 1947
laterwork	Educationist, Military advisor, and an environmental scientist }}

He joined the Royal Indian Air Force as a Fighter Pilot in the No. 1 Squadron, Indian Air Force. He fought against the Japanese Imperial Army in Burma during World War II, flying in a Hawker Hurricane fighter plane.

Academic career[link]

He was selected for the Forest Service after World War II and trained at the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun, India. After partition of India and Pakistan he joined the Pakistan Forest Service, becoming the Chief Conservator of Forests and Director of the Aerial Survey Project in Peshawar, Pakistan, where he surveyed the North-West Frontier Province for a Natural Resources Survey from 1965-1969. He introduced hybrid poplars in Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir, and especially Rawalakot, changing the living conditions of the rural population.

He supervised an aerial survey of the Indus River Basin for the development of natural resources. He emigrated to United States in August 1971 to complete a PhD in Civil Engineering at Colorado State University. After retiring from the Pakistani Forest Service, Ahmad joined the Colorado Department of Military Affairs, where he helped to draft the Emergency Response Plan for the State of Colorado. From 1983 until 1999 he was the Managing Director of Pakistan Chrome Mines Ltd.

Philanthropy[link]

He gave scholarships for education to residents of Poonch District. He died on September 20, 2003, at the age of 80 in New Jersey.

He was buried at his favourite place on earth, his apple orchard in Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir. His family, especially his daughter Dr. Rehana Kausar, continues giving scholarships for academic excellence, in Mr. Ahmad's name, for students studying science in Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir.

See also[link]

List of Kashmiris

References[link]

Category:1923 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Kashmiri people Category:Pakistani businesspeople Category:Chief executives Category:Pakistani aviators Category:Pakistani academics Category:People from Poonch District, Pakistan Category:People from Rawalakot Category:University of the Punjab alumni Category:Colorado State University alumni Category:Pakistani foresters Category:Pakistani military engineers Category:Pakistani engineers Category:Pakistan Air Force officers