Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941 – November 24, 1989) (Arabic عبد الله يوسف عزام) was a highly influential Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, who preached in favor of defensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders and became the first leader of Al Qaeda.^[1] He raised funds, recruited, and organized the international Islamic volunteer effort of Afghan Arabs through the 1980s, and emphasised the political ascension of Islam.

He is also known as a teacher and mentor of Osama bin Laden, and persuaded bin Laden to come to Afghanistan and help the jihad,^[2] though the two differed as to where the next front in global jihad should be after the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan.^[3][4] He was also a co-founder of Hamas and Lashkar-e-Taiba.^[5][6][7] He was killed by a bomb blast on November 24, 1989.^[8]

Early life in the West Bank[link]

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was born in 1941 in the village of as-Ba'ah al-Hartiyeh (Silat al-Harithiya village), a few kilometers northwest of the city of Jenin, in the Jenin Sanjak (District), then administered as the British Mandate of Palestine.^[9]

After completing his elementary and secondary school education in his home village, he studied agriculture at Khadorri College near Tulkarm.^[10] After college graduation, Azzam worked as a teacher in the south Jordanian village of Adder. In 1961, at the age of 20, he married a girl named Umm Muhammad. He subsequently joined Sharia College at the University of Damascus where he obtained a B.A. in Sharia in 1966.^[11] After the 1967 Six-Day War ended in Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, Azzam left the West Bank and followed the Palestinian exodus to Jordan, where he joined the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.^[12]. Azzam, a Palestinian, "deeply driven by the injustice to his people"^[13] founded Al-Qaeda. He later turned over leadership of Al-Qaeda to Osama bin Laden due to financial and control pressures, he is quoted as saying of the Saudis, "They will relax, because when they feel Osama is out of control, they can stop him. But I am a Palestinian. they have no way to stop me.^[14].

His father, Mustafa Azzam, died in 1990. His mother was Zakia Saleh who died in 1988, one year before the he was killed. She was buried in the Pabi camp, in Peshawar, Pakistan, where Abdullah Azzam was later killed.^[15]

Life in Jordan and Egypt[link]

In Jordan, Azzam participated in paramilitary operations against the Israeli occupation but became disillusioned with the secular and provincial nature of the Palestinian resistance coalition held together under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and led by Yasser Arafat. Instead of pursuing the PLO’s Marxist-oriented national liberation struggle supported by the Soviet Union, Azzam envisioned a pan-Islamic trans-national movement that would transcend the political map of the Middle East drawn by non-Islamic colonial powers.^[16] He is believed to have had a role in founding the Islamist Hamas movement in Palestine.^{[citation needed]}

Azzam then went to Egypt to continue Islamic studies at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University where he earned a Master’s degree in Sharia. He returned to teach at the University of Jordan in Amman, but in 1970, the Jordanian military expelled PLO militants from Jordan during what became known as Black September, thereby preventing the use of Jordanian territory for anti-Israeli and anti-Western attacks. In 1971, Azzam received a scholarship to once again attend Al-Azhar University where he obtained his Ph.D. in the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Usool ul-Fiqh) in 1973.

During theological studies in Egypt, Azzam met Omar Abdel-Rahman, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and other followers of Sayyed Qutb, an extremely influential leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, who had been executed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966. Azzam adopted elements of Sayyed Qutb’s ideology, including beliefs in an inevitable “clash of civilizations” between the Islamic world and non-Islamic world, and in the necessity of violent revolution against secular governments to establish an Islamic state.

Life in Saudi Arabia[link]

After obtaining his Doctorate in Egypt in 1973, Azzam returned to teach at the University of Jordan, but his radical views were suppressed there.^{[citation needed]} So Azzam then moved to Saudi Arabia. Since the 1960s, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia had welcomed exiled teachers from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, so that by the early 1970s it was common to find many Saudi high school and university teachers who had become involved with exiled dissident members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

As one of those Jordanian dissidents in the early 1970s, Azzam took a position as lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he remained until 1979. Osama bin Laden had grown up in Jeddah, and was enrolled as a student in the university there between 1976 and 1981 and he probably first made contact with Azzam at that time.^[17]

Life in Pakistan and Afghanistan[link]

1979 became a pivotal year for Islamic movement, with three huge revolutionary events in the Muslim world. First, on January 16, 1979 the Iranian Revolution succeed in taking over the country and exiling the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which then brought about the world's first modern Muslim theocracy under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The second major attempt at Islamic revolution that year was the November 20, 1979 Grand Mosque Seizure at Mecca, in western Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam. The two week siege and bloody ending shocked the Muslim world, as hundreds were killed in the ensuing battles and executions. The event was explained as a fundamentalist dissident revolt against the Saudi regime. The Saudi regime responded with repression, and in 1979, Azzam was expelled from the university at Jeddah. He then moved to Pakistan to be close to the nascent Afghan Jihad.^{[citation needed]}

In the third major event of the year, on December 25, 1979 the Soviet Union, attempting to suppress a growing Islamic rebellion, deployed the 40th Army into Afghanistan, in support of advisors it already had in place there.

Support for Afghan mujahideen[link]

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa, Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation after Faith^[18] declaring that both the Afghan and Palestinian struggles were jihads in which killing occupiers of your land (no matter what their faith) was fard ayn (a personal obligation) for all Muslims. The edict was supported by Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti (highest religious scholar), Abd al-Aziz Bin Bazz.

In Pakistan in 1980, Azzam began to teach at International Islamic University in Islamabad. Soon thereafter, he moved from Islamabad to Peshawar, closer to the Afghan border, where he then established Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office) to organize guest houses in Peshawar and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international recruits for the Afghan war front.

Peshawar is a major border city of a million people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan. From there, Azzam was able to organize resistance directly on the Afghan frontier. Peshawar is only 15 km east of the historic Khyber Pass, through the Safed Koh mountains, connected to the southeastern edge of the Hindu Kush range. This route became the major avenue of inserting foreign fighters and material support into eastern Afghanistan for the resistance against the Soviets.

After Osama bin Laden graduated from the university in Jeddah in 1981, he also came to live for a time in Peshawar, "Azam prevailed on him to come and use his money" for training recruits, according to The News International.^[19] Some have suggested that Mohammed Atef was responsible for convincing Azzam to abandon his academic pursuits to devote himself solely to preaching jihad.^[20]

Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. To keep al Khadamat running, bin Laden set up a network of couriers travelling between Afghanistan and Peshawar, which continued to remain active after 2001, according to Yusufzai.

After orientation and training, Muslim recruits volunteered for service with various Afghan militias tied to Azzam. In 1984, Osama bin Laden founded Bait ul-Ansar (House of Helpers) in Peshawar to expand Azzam’s ability to support “Afghan Arab” jihad volunteers and, later, to create his own independent militia.

In 1988, Azzam convinced Ahmed Khadr to raise funds for an alleged new charity named al-Tahaddi based in Peshawar. He granted Khadr a letter of commendation to take back to Canadian mosques, calling for donations. However, the pair had a sensationalist showdown when Khadr insisted that he had a right to know how the money would be spent, and Azzam's supporters labelled Khadr a Western spy. A Sharia court was convened in bin Laden's compound, and Azzam was found guilty of spreading allegations against Khadr, though no sentence was imposed.^[21]

Employing tactics of asymmetric warfare, the Afghan resistance movement was able to fend off the Soviet Union's superior military forces throughout most of the war, although the lightly armed Afghan mujahideen suffered enormous casualties. The Saudi Arabian government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gradually increased financial and military assistance to the Afghan mujahideen forces throughout the 1980s in an effort to stem Soviet expansionism and to destabilize the Soviet Union.

Azzam frequently joined Afghan militias and international Muslim units as they battled the Soviet Union's forces in Afghanistan. He sought to unify elements of the resistance by resolving conflicts between mujahideen commanders and he became an inspirational figure among the Afghan resistance and freedom-fighting Muslims worldwide for his passionate attachment to jihad against foreign occupation.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1980s, Azzam traveled throughout the Middle East, Europe and North America, including 50 cities in the United States, to raise money and preach about jihad. He inspired young Muslims with stories of miraculous deeds, mujahideen who defeated vast columns of Soviet troops virtually single-handed, who had been run over by tanks but survived, who were shot but unscathed by bullets. Angels were witnessed riding into battle on horseback, and falling bombs were intercepted by birds, which raced ahead of the jets to form a protective canopy over the warriors.^[22]

In Steven Emerson's 1994 television documentary Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America, he showed a video of Abdullah Azzam in Brooklyn urging his audience to wage jihad in America (which Azzam explains "means fighting only, fighting with the sword"), and Fayiz Azzam (a cousin of Abdullah) tells an Atlanta audience: "Blood must flow. There must be widows; there must be orphans."^[23]

Global Jihad[link]

Azzam's trademark slogan was "Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues." In Join the Caravan, Azzam implored Muslims to rally in defense of Muslim victims of aggression, to restore Muslim lands from foreign domination, and to uphold the Muslim faith.^[24]

Azzam built a scholarly, ideological and practical paramilitary infrastructure for the globalization of Islamist movements that had previously focused on separate national, revolutionary and liberation struggles. Azzam’s philosophical rationalization of global jihad and practical approach to recruitment and training of Muslim militants from around the world blossomed during the Afghan war against Soviet occupation and proved crucial to the subsequent development of the al-Qaida militant movement.^[1] In 1989, after the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, Azzam and his deputy Osama bin Laden decided to keep their movement permanent and founded the Al Qaeda.^[1]

Like earlier influential Islamist Sayyid Qutb, Azzam urged the creation of `pioneering vanguard`, as the core of a new Islamic society. `This vanguard constitutes the solid base` [qaeda in Arabic] for the hoped-for society ... We shall continue the jihad no matter how long the way, until the last breath and the last beat of the pulse - or until we see the Islamic state established.'^[25] From its victory in Afghanistan jihad would liberate Muslim land (or land where Muslims for a minority in the case of the Philippines or formerly Muslim land in the case of Spain) ruled by unbelievers: the southern Soviet Republics of Central Asia, Bosnia, the Philippines, Kashmir, Somalia, Eritrea, and Spain. He believed the natural place to continue the jihad was his birthplace, Palestine. Azzam planned to train brigades of Hamas fighters in Afghanistan, who would then return to carry on the battle against Israel."^[26]

This put him at odds with another influential faction of the Afghan Arabs the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The next group of "unbelievers" the EIJ wanted to jihad against were not Israeli Jews, European Christians or Indian Hindus, but self-professed Muslims of the Egyptian government and other secular Muslim governments. For the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, takfir against the allegedly impious Egyptian government was central,^[27] but Azzam opposed takfir of Muslims – including takfir of Muslim governments – which he believed spread fitna and disunity within the Muslim community.

Assassination[link]

In 1989, a first attempt on his life failed, when a lethal amount of TNT explosive was placed beneath the pulpit from which he delivered the sermon every Friday. The Arab mosque was in the University Town neighbourhood in western Peshawar, in Gulshan Iqbal Road. Abdullah Azzam used the mosque as the jihad center, according to a Reuters inquiry in the neighborhood. Had the bomb exploded, reportedly it would have destroyed the mosque, and killed everybody in it.^[28]

But then on November 24, 1989, Muhammad Azzam was driving his father and brother to Friday prayers in Peshawar, when unknown assassins detonated a bomb as the vehicle approached; lying in a narrow street across from a gas station, the explosive had a 50 metre detonation cord which led to the sewerage system where the assailant presumably waited.^[29]

According to Time magazine Waheed Muzhda had noticed what he assumed was a crew doing routine road maintenance working on the culvert where the bomb was placed, the day before the assassination.^[30]

Azzam and his sons were buried near the same site as his mother the year before, the Pabi Graveyard of the Shuhadaa' (martyrs), in Peshawar.

Suspects in the assassination include competing Islamic militia leaders, the CIA, and the Israeli Mossad.^[31]

Since the Soviet Union had withdrawn all troops from Afghanistan by this time, the CIA would not seem to have an obvious reason to assassinate Azzam. Many suspect the killing was part of a purge of those who favored moving the jihad to Palestine. In March 1991, Mustapha Shalabi, who ran the Maktab al-Khidmat, the Services Bureau in New York and was also "said to prefer a `Palestine next` strategy, turned up dead in his apartment." He was replaced by Wadih el-Hage, who later became bin Laden's personal secretary.^[32]

Osama bin Laden has also been accused of being a suspect in the murder, but seems to have remained on good terms with Azzam during this time.^[33] However, it was reported that Bin Laden and Azzam also had a major dispute on where Al Qaeda should focus their operations.^[1] Bin Laden favored using the organization to train fighters in various parts of the world whilst Azzam favored on just keeping the training camps in Afghanistan.^[1]

Yet another actor accused of the hit is Iranian intelligence,^[34] an active adversary of Salafi Islam. In 2009, Jordanian double agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi claimed knowledge of Jordanian Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah cooperation with the CIA to set up the assassination.^[35]

Legacy[link]

After his death, Azzam’s militant ideology and related paramilitary manuals were promoted through print and Internet media by Azzam Publications, which described itself as "an independent media organisation providing authentic news and information about Jihad and the Foreign Mujahideen everywhere." The publishing house operated from a London post office box (Azzam Publications—BMC UHUD, LONDON, WC1N 3XX) and an Internet site, www.azzam.com, that were shut down shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks and are no longer active, though mirror sites persisted for some time afterwards. Babar Ahmad, the alleged administrator of azzam.com, is awaiting extradition from Great Britain to the USA.

In terms of ideas, Azzam’s belief in jihad – 'one hour in the path of jihad is worth more than 70 years of praying at home' – has had considerable impact. Azzam is thought to had influence on jihadists such as al-Qaeda with the third stage of his "four-stage process of jihad". This third stage was "ribat," defined as "placing oneself at the frontlines where Islam was under siege". This idea is thought to reinforce militants "perception of a civilizational war between Islam and the West".^[36]

Quotes[link]

• "Indeed he (Ahmad Shah Massoud) is the hero of Islam."^[37]
• "Muslims cannot be defeated by others. We Muslims are not defeated by our enemies, but instead, we are defeated by our own selves."^{[citation needed]}

Written works[link]

• Defense of the Muslim Lands: The First Obligation after Faith, 1979 (many typographical errors); 2002 (second English ed., revised with improved citations and spelling.) Is a study on the legal rulings of Jihad. It discusses the types of Jihad, the conditions under which Jihad becomes an obligation upon all Muslims, parents’ permission, fighting in the absence of the Islamic State, and peace treaties with the enemy.)
• Join the Caravan, 1987, 1991 (second English ed.) (An appeal for Muslims to establish “a solid foundation as a base for Islam” in Afghanistan by expelling the Russian invaders of this Muslim land. The author quoted extensively from the Quran and the ahadeeth in establishing his jurisprudence reasoning as to why there is now an individual obligation (Fard Ain) for committed Muslims to travel to Pakistan-Afghanistan and become active combatants - mujahideen themselves.
• The Lofty Mountain (A biographical book on the life of Tameem Adnani, a scholar of the Afghan Jihad. It contains a unique, descriptive, first-hand account of the famous Lion's Den Operation in Jaji, Afghanistan, in 1987 whereby 50 Mujahideen held off a month-long assault by several battalions of Soviet and Communist soldiers.)
• The Signs of The Merciful in the Jihad of the Afghan (A fully checked and revised version of a book listing over a hundred eyewitness alleged accounts of miracles experienced by the Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan Jihad, from perfumed bodies of martyrs to accounts of angels helping the Mujahideen, and other claims..)
• Lovers of the Paradise Maidens (Lovers of the Paradise Maidens contains the biographies and stories of over 150 Mujahideen who died in the Soviet-Afghan Jihad.)

See also[link]

	Islam portal
	Palestine portal
	Biography portal

• Egyptian Islamic Jihad
• Jamaat-e-Islami
• Mujahideen
• Reagan Doctrine
• Azzam the American
• Hasan al-Banna
• Javed Ahmed Ghamidi
• Khurshid Ahmad
• Mohammad Amin al-Husayni
• Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
• Sayyid Qutb
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi
• Brigades of Abdullah Azzam
• Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

• Abdullah Azzam The godfather of jihad

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Azzam may refer to:

Persons[link]

• Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian
• Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam (also known as Azzam Pasha), Egyptian diplomat who is known for making the famous Azzam Pasha quotation
• Adam Yahiye Gadahn, spokesman for Al-Qaeda, also known as Azzam the American
• Ahmad Azzam, Syrian footballer
• Azzam Azzam, person who was convicted of spying for Israel
• Bob Azzam, Lebanese singer
• Husam Azzam, Palestinian athlete and paralympian
• Mansour Fadlallah Azzam, Minister of Presidential Affairs of Syria since 2009

Organisations[link]

• Azzam Publications, British publishing house.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah शेख़ मुहम्मद अब्‍दुल्‍ला شيخ محمد عبدالله
Sheikh Abdullah addressing crowd at Lal Chowk Sringar in 1975
Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
In office 5 March 1948 – 9 August 1953
Preceded by	Mehr Chand Mahajan
Succeeded by	Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
In office 25 February 1975 – 26 March 1977
Preceded by	Syed Mir Qasim
Succeeded by	President's Rule
In office 9 July 1977 – 8 September 1982
Preceded by	President's Rule
Succeeded by	Farooq Abdullah
Personal details
Born	(1905-12-05)5 December 1905 Soura, Kashmir, British India
Died	8 September 1982(1982-09-08) (aged 76) Srinagar, Kashmir, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
Spouse(s)	Begum Akbar Jahan Abdullah
Children	Farooq Abdullah
Alma mater	Islamia College Lahore, Aligarh Muslim University
Religion	Islam

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah (Kashmiri: शेख़ मुहम्मद अब्‍दुल्‍ला (Devanagari), شيخ محمد عبدالله (Nastaleeq)), Sher-e-Kashmir (the Lion of Kashmir) (December 5, 1905, Soura, Kashmir – September 8, 1982, Srinagar), was the leader of the National Conference, Kashmir's largest political party, and one of the most important political figures in the modern history of Jammu and Kashmir. In 1933 he married Akbar Jahan, the daughter of Michael Harry Nedou, the eldest son of the European proprietor of a chain of hotels in India including Nedous Hotel in Srinagar, and his Kashmiri wife Mirjan. Michael Harry Nedou was himself the proprietor of a hotel at the tourist resort of Gulmarg^[1] (The writer Tariq Ali claims that Akbar Jehan was previously married in 1928 to an Arab Karam Shah who disappeared after a Calcutta newspaper Liberty reported that he was actually T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)^[2] a British Intelligence officer. He claims that Akbar Jehan was divorced by her first husband in 1929.)^[3] He agitated against the rule of the Maharaja Hari Singh, and urged self-rule for Kashmir. He was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State after its provisional accession to India in 1947, and was later jailed and exiled. He again became the Chief Minister of the state following the 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord and remained in the top slot till his death on September 8, 1982.

Early life[link]

The most important source of Sheikh Abdullah's early life is his official biography Atish e Chinar He was born in Soura, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar, eleven days after the death of his father Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim, a middle class manufacturer and trader of Kashmir shawls. Sheikh Ibrahim was the descendant of a Hindu Kashmiri Pandit named Ragho Ram Koul who was converted to Islam in 1890 by the saint Rashid Balkhi and after conversion changed his name to Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. Thus Sheikh Abdullah was the namesake of the progenitor of his family branch.

According to Sheikh Abdullah, his step brother mistreated his mother and his early childhood was marked by utter poverty. His mother was keen that her children should receive proper education and so as a child he was first admitted to a traditional school or Maktab where he learnt the recitation of the Koran and some basic Persian texts like Gulistan of Sa'di, Bostan, Padshanama, etc. Then in 1911 he was admitted to a primary school where he studied for about two years. His elder step brothers then stopped his further education and he was first set to work in the family workshop embroidering shawls and later asked to sit on a grocers shop as a sales boy.

However, their family barber Mohammed Ramzan prevailed upon his uncle to send him back to school. He had to walk the distance of ten miles to school and back on foot but in his own words the joy of being allowed to obtain a school education made it seem a light work. He passed his Matriculation examination from Punjab University in 1922.^[4]

Higher studies[link]

After matriculation he obtained admission in Sri Partap College the leading college of Kashmir. Because of extreme poverty he had to walk the distance of about fifteen miles from Soura to S.P.College and back and so developed Cardiomegaly (perhaps an early sign of beriberi brought about by malnutrition and severe exercise.) He was admitted to the Mission Hospital where under the treatment of the famous Neve brothers he recovered completely. His elder brother Sheikh Maqbool was moved by his illness and agreed to pay for his stay in the college hostel from where he passed his intermediate(F.Sc.) examination.

He obtained admission in Islamia College Lahore from where he completed his B.Sc.Degree. After that he obtained admission to the M.Sc. Chemistry course in Aligarh Muslim University and obtained Masters degree in Chemistry on 12 April 1930. He was the first Kashmiri Muslim to have obtained a Master's degree in Chemistry.

Political career[link]

Kashmiri polymath and lawyer Molvi Abdullah. His lectures motivated Sheikh Abdullah and other educated Muslim youth to struggle for justice and fundamental rights

As a student at Aligarh Muslim University he came in contact with and was influenced by persons with liberal and progressive ideas. He became convinced that the feudal system was responsible for the miseries of the Kashmiris and like all progressive nations of the world Kashmir too should have a democratically elected government.

Muslim Conference formed[link]

Sheikh Abdullah and his colleagues were greatly influenced by the lectures of a Kashmiri polymath and lawyer Molvi Abdullah.^[5]

Molvi Abdullah's son Molvi Abdul Rahim, Sheikh Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Gilkar were the first three educated Kashmiri youth to be arrested during the public agitation of 1931.^[6]

Sheikh Abdullah with other leaders of 1931 agitation.Sitting R to L: Sardar Gohar Rehman,Mistri Yaqoob Ali,Sheikh Abdullah,Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas.Standing. R:Molvi Abdul Rahim,L:Ghulam Nabi Gilkar

Kashmir's first political party the Muslim Conference with Sheikh Abdullah as President, Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas as General Secretary, and Molvi Abdul Rahim as Secretary was formed on 16 October 1932. In his presidential address Sheikh Abdullah categorically stated that the Muslim Conference had come into existence to struggle for the rights of all oppressed sections of the society and not Muslims alone. It was not a communal party and would struggle for the rights of the oppressed, whether Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, with the same fervor. He reasserted that the struggle of Kashmiris was not a communal struggle.^[7]

In March 1933 the Muslim Conference constituted a committee which included Molvi Abdullah and nine other members for the purpose of establishing contacts with non-Muslim parties and exploring the possibility of forming a joint organisation. According to Sheikh Abdullah this effort was not successful because of the unfavourable reception of the idea by the non-Muslim parties.^[8] Sheikh Abdullah campaigned to change the name of the Muslim Conference to National Conference, under the influence of among others Jawaharlal Nehru.After a prolonged and vigorous campaign a special session of the Muslim Conference held in June 1939 voted to change the name of the party to National Conference.Of the one hundred and seventy six members attending the session one hundred and seventy two members voted in favour of the resolution...^[9] According to Sheikh Abdullah the support of Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas of Jammu was very important in motivating the members to vote for this change .^[10]

Formation of Praja Sabha (Legislative Assembly)[link]

As a result of the 1931 agitation the Maharajah appointed a Grievances Commission with an Englishman B.J. Glancy as President which submitted its report in March 1932.^[11] Subsequently a Constitutional Reforms Conference also presided over by B.J. Glancy recommended the setting up of an elected Legislative Assembly (Praja Sabha). Consequently a Praja Sabha with 33 elected and 42 nominated members elected on the basis of separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims was established in 1934.^[12] Women and illiterate men without sufficient property, or title, or annual income of less than Rupees four hundred did not have the right to vote. Roughly less than 10% (according to Justice Anand only 3%) of the population were enfranchised.^[13]

Even after the formation of Praja Sabha in 1934 as recommended by the Commission real power continued to remain in the hands of the Maharajah.^[14]

Seventeen years later in 1951, the government of Kashmir with Sheikh Abdullah as Prime Minister held elections to a Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Sheikh Abdullah's Government had been accused of rigging in these elections to the Constituent Assembly.^[15] Nonetheless, due consideration should be given to the quantum leap in moving from elections with 10% of enfranchised population to universal adult suffrage and that too just after a cease fire from an active war.

Meeting with Nehru[link]

Sheikh Abdullah with Nehru and Badshah Khan(Centre) at Nishat Garden in 1945

Sheikh Abdullah was introduced to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 and as he too as a leader of the Indian National Congress was demanding similar rights for people of British India^[16] and had formed The All India States Peoples Conference^[17] for supporting the people of Princely States in their struggle for a representative government the two became friends and political allies.

Muslim Conference renamed as National Conference[link]

He introduced a resolution in the working committee of the Muslim Conference for changing its name to National Conference on 24 June 1938 to allow people from all communities to join the struggle against the autocratic rule of the Maharaja.^[18] Meanwhile he along with his liberal progressive friends, many of whom were not Muslim like Kashyap Bandhu, Jia Lal Kilam, Pandit Sudama Sidha, Prem Nath Bazaz and Sardar Budh Singh drafted the National Demands^[19] the forerunner of the famous Naya Kashmir (New Kashmir) Manifesto (which was a charter of demands for granting a democratic constitution committed to the welfare of the common people of Kashmir)^[20]

He presented these demands to the Maharajah in a speech on 28 August 1938.^[21] The Maharajah of course was not willing to accept these demands and so he along with many of his companions was arrested for defying prohibitory orders and sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine. His arrest provoked a public agitation in which volunteers called Dictators (so called because they had the authority to defy laws that was forbidden for normal law abiding party members) courted arrest.This agitation was called off on the appeal of Mahatama Gandhi. He was released after serving his sentence on 24 February 1939 and accorded a grand reception by the people of Srinagar on his return. Speeches were made at the reception stressing the importance of unity among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.^[22] Subsequently the resolution for changing the name of Muslim Conference to National Conference was ratified with an overwhelming majority by the General Council of the Muslim Conference on 11 June 1939 and from that date Muslim Conference became National Conference.^[23]

Quit Kashmir Agitation[link]

In May 1946 Sheikh Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir agitation against the Maharajah Hari Singh and was arrested and sentenced to three years imprisonment but was released only sixteen months later on 29 September 1947^[24]

(See Tehreek e Hurriyat e Kashmir By Rashid Taseer (Urdu) volume 2 page 29 for "National Demands" discussion and see Chapter 12 page 310-313 regarding presentation of "Naya Kashmir" Manifesto to Maharaja Hari Singh. Full text of "Naya Kashmir" manifesto is given from page 314 -383.English translation of this text is available at Wikisource. Also see relevant chapters from Atish e Chinar regarding 1931 agitation (Chapters 9, 10 and 11) Glancy Commission (Chapter 15) formation of Muslim Conference (Chapter 18) meeting with Nehru (Chapter 23), reasons for change in name of Muslim Conference to National Conference (Chapter 24) and becoming president of All India States Peoples Conference (Chapter 31). His arrest and subsequent release following the Quit Kashmir agitation is discussed in Chapter 34 page 372-389.)

Head of emergency administration[link]

Sheik Mohammed Abdullah (right), chosen to head interim government in Indian-occupied sector, confers with Sardar Patel, deputy premier

Hari Singh appealed to Lord Mountbatten of Burma the Governor-General of India for Indian military aid. In his Accession Offer dated October 26, 1947 which accompanied The Instrument of Accession duly signed by him, the Maharaja Hari Singh wrote "I may also inform your Excellency's Government that it is my intention at once to set up an interim Government and ask Shaikh Abdullah to carry the responsibilities in this emergency with my Prime Minister."

Lord Mountbatten accepted the accession after a meeting of the Defence Committee on October 26, 1947. In accepting the accession unconditionally he wrote "I do hereby accept this Instrument of Accession. Dated this twenty seventh day of October, nineteen hundred and forty seven".^[25] In the covering letter to Hari Singh. he wrote "In consistence with their policy that in the case of any State where the issue of accession has been the subject of dispute, the question of accession should be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government's wish that, as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and its soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State's accession should be settled by a reference to the people".^[26] Also in his letter to the Maharaja Lord Mountbatten wrote "My Government and I note with satisfaction that your Highness has decided to invite Sheikh Abdullah to form an Interim Government to work with your Prime Minister. The support of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru the Prime Minister of India was a key factor in getting Sheikh Abdullah appointed as Head of the emergency administration by the Maharaja.^[27]

As a consequence, Sheikh Abdullah was appointed head of an emergency administration by an order issued by the Maharaja which was undated except for the mention October 1947 in place of the date. He took charge as Head of the Emergency Administration on 30 October 1947.^[28] After assuming the charge of the Head of the emergency administration, he addressing his first meeting with the government officers said "Pakistan is not our enemy and we have the same respect for Mr Jinnah that we had previously. We want the Kashmir issue to be settled by Dialog and if for this purpose I have to go to Karachi to meet Mr Jinnah I am willing to go there".^[29]

He raised a force of local Kashmiri volunteers to patrol Srinagar and take control of administration after the flight of the Maharaja along with his family and Prime Minister Meher Chand Mahajan to Jammu even before the Indian troops had landed. This group of volunteers would serve as the nucleus for the subsequent formation of Jammu and Kashmir Militia.^[30] This Sheikh Abdullah hoped would take over the defence of Kashmir after the Indian army was withdrawn. This was articulated in his letter to Sardar Patel dated 7 October 1948 in which he wrote, "With the taking over of the State forces by the Indian Government, it was agreed that steps would be taken to reorganise and rebuild our army so that when the present emergency is over and the Indian forces are withdrawn the State will be left with a proper organised army of its own to fall back upon."^[31] (Sheikh Abdullah has alleged that most of the Muslim soldiers of the Militia were either discharged or imprisoned before his arrest in 1953.^[32] The Militia (dubbed as Dagan Brigade) was converted from a State Militia to a regular unit of the Indian Army on 2 December 1972 and re designated the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry)^[33]

The UN Security Council brokered a ceasefire among the warring parties(which came into effect before midnight 1 January 1949)^[34] having passed a resolution demanding settlement of the question of Kashmir's accession to India or Pakistan by a plebiscite to be held under the auspices of the United Nations (Resolution 47 dated 21 April 1948 and UNCIP resolution dated 13 August 1948).^[35]

However, because of wrangling between India and Pakistan, this resolution remains unimplemented.

Prime Minister[link]

Sheikh Abdullah took oath as Prime Minister of Kashmir on March 17, 1948.^[36]

Pakistani view[link]

The government of Pakistan in 1947 viewed Abdullah and his party as agents of Nehru and did not recognise his leadership of Kashmir.^[37] However there was a change in Pakistan's viewpoint with the passage of time. When he visited Pakistan in 1964 he was awarded a tumultuous welcome by the people of Pakistan. Among the persons who received him was Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas his once colleague and later bitter political enemy who earlier in his book Kashmakash had denounced Sheikh Abdullah as a turncoat and traitor. Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas embraced him and in his speech described him as one of the greatest leaders of the subcontinent and a great benefactor of the Muslims of the subcontinent.^[38][39] President Ayub Khan and his then Foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto discussed the Kashmir problem with him. The government of Pakistan treated him as a state guest.^[40] Sheikh Abdullah had the rare distinction of having poems in his praise written by three major Pakistani Urdu poets namely Hafeez Jullundhri, Josh and Faiz Ahmed Faiz who admired his lifelong struggle against injustice and for democratic rights of the common man.^[41]

Arrest and release[link]

On 8 August 1953 he was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Sadr-i-Riyasat (Constitutional Head of State) Dr. Karan Singh son of the erstwhile Maharajah Hari Singh on the charge that he had lost the confidence of his cabinet (not the house)^[42] He was denied the opportunity to prove his majority on the floor of the house.^[43] and his dissident cabinet minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed as Prime Minister.^[44] Sheikh Abdullah was immediately arrested and later jailed for eleven years, accused of conspiracy against the State in the infamous "Kashmir Conspiracy Case".^[45]

According to Sheikh Abdullah his dismissal and arrest were engineered by the central government headed by Prime Minister Nehru.^[46] He has quoted B.N. Mullicks' statements in his book "My Years with Nehru"^[47] in support of his statement.^[46] A.G.Noorani writing in Frontline supports this view,as according to him Nehru himself ordered the arrest.^[48] On 8 April 1964 the State Government dropped all charges in the so called "Kashmir Conspiracy Case".^[49] Sheikh Abdullah was released and returned to Srinagar where he was accorded an unprecedented welcome by the people of the valley".^[50]

After his release he was reconciled with Nehru. Nehru requested Sheikh Abdullah to act as a bridge between India and Pakistan and make President Ayub to agree to come to New Delhi for talks for a final solution of the Kashmir problem. President Ayub Khan also sent telegrams to Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah with the message that as Pakistan too was a party to the Kashmir dispute any resolution of the conflict without its participation would not be acceptable to Pakistan. This paved the way for Sheikh Abdullah's visit to Pakistan to help broker a solution to the Kashmir problem.^[51]

Sheikh Abdullah went to Pakistan in spring of 1964. President Ayub Khan of Pakistan held extensive talks with him to explore various avenues for solving the Kashmir problem and agreed to come to Delhi in mid June for talks with Nehru as suggested by him. Even the date of his proposed visit was fixed and communicated to New Delhi.^[52] On 27 May while he was en route to Muzaffarabad in Pakistani Administered Kashmir news came of the sudden death of Nehru and the Sheikh after addressing a public rally at Muzaffarabad returned to Delhi.^[53] On his suggestion President Ayub Khan sent a high level Pakistani delegation led by his Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto along with him to take part in the last rites of Jawaharlal Nehru.^[54]

After Nehru's death in 1964, he was interned from 1965 to 1968 and exiled from Kashmir in 1971 for 18 months. The Plebiscite Front was also banned. This was allegedly done to prevent him and the Plebiscite Front which was supported by him from taking part in elections in Kashmir.^[55]

After Indo Pakistan war and creation of Bangladesh[link]

In 1971 an insurrection broke out in erstwhile East Pakistan, and subsequently war broke out between India and Pakistan which ended in the creation of Bangladesh. Sheikh Abdullah watching the alarming turn of events in the subcontinent realized that for the survival of this region there was an urgent need to stop pursuing confrontational politics and promoting solution of issues by a process of reconciliation and dialogue rather than confrontation.

If this was not done there was imminent danger of the breakup and balkanisation of both India and Pakistan with disastrous consequences for the people of this region. Realizing this he started talks with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for normalizing the situation in the region and came to an accord called 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord with Indira Gandhi, then India's Prime Minister, by giving up the demand for a plebiscite in lieu of the people being given the right to self rule by a democratically elected Government (as envisaged under article 370 of the Constitution of India) rather than the puppet government which till then ruled the State.^[56]

Chief Minister[link]

Sheikh Abdullahs funeral procession was miles long and the largest in living memory.In this clip the President of India is offering his tribute

He assumed the position of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately the Central Government and the ruling Congress Party withdrew its support so that the State Assembly had to be dissolved and mid term elections called.^[57]

The National Conference won an overwhelming majority in the subsequent elections and reelected Sheikh Abdullah as Chief Minister.^[58] He remained as Chief Minister till his death in 1982.

Painting depicting funeral procession of Sheikh Abdullah.The Kashmiri artist Aslam was in Ladakh when Sheikh Abdullah died.He saw the funeral procession on television and the sight inspired this painting.The amazing detail of the expressions on the faces of the mourners is remarkable.It is an example of a type of miniature painting used by kashmiri artists for decorating paper machie objects.

Abdullah, described as a six feet four inches (1.93m)^[59][60][61] to six feet six inches (1.98m) tall man,^[62] was fluent in both Kashmiri and Urdu. His biography in Urdu entitled Atish-e-Chinar was written by the noted Kashmiri author M.Y.Taing and published after Sheikh Abdullah's death. It is often referred to as his autobiography as Taing claimed that he only acted as an amanuensis.^[63] It is based on extensive interviews that Taing had with Sheikh Abdullah and provides valuable information on Sheikh Abdullah's family background, early life, ringside glimpses of happenings in Kashmir at a crucial juncture in its history, and his viewpoint about the political events in Kashmir in which he himself played a central role.

After his death his eldest son Dr. Farooq Abdullah was elected as the Chief Minister of the State. Omar Abdullah who is the son of Farooq Abdullah has also emerged as an important political leader of the National Conference. He is the present chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Discussion
• List of Kashmiris
• History of Jammu and Kashmir
• Kashmir conflict
• Instrument of Accession (Jammu and Kashmir)
• Kashmiriyat - a socio-cultural ethos of religious harmony and Kashmiri consciousness.
• Political Parties in Kashmir in 1947
• List of topics on the land and the people of "Jammu and Kashmir"
• Kashmir Conspiracy Case
• List of political families

References[link]

• A.G. Noorani (2000), "Article370: Law and Politics". Frontline Volume 17 - Issue 19, September 16–29, (Discusses illegality of Central Govt and Parliament's Actions in amending Article 370 without concurrence of Constituent Assembly of Kashmir)
• A.G. Noorani (2006), "Nehru's legacy in foreign affairs". Frontline Volume Volume 23 - Issue 15 :: July 29 August 11, 2006 (Discusses Nehru's role in arrest of Sheikh Abdullah and erosion of Article 370)
• B.N.Mullick (1972): My Years with Nehru (Provides evidence of Nehru's role in dismissal and arrest of Sheikh Abdullah.B.N.Mullick was head of Indian Intelligence Bureau at the time of his arrest)
• Justice A.S. Anand (2006) The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. Universal Law Publishing Co. ISBN 81-7534-520-9
• Mubashir Hassan (2008-07-18), "The Nedous and Lawrence of Arabia", The Nation (Pakistan), http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Lahore/18-Jul-2008/The-Nedous-and-Lawrence-of-Arabia, retrieved 2008-07-22 
• Rasheed Taseer (1973): Tareekh e Hurriyat e Kashmir (URDU). Muhafiz Publications Srinagar Volume 2 gives an account of evnts in Kashmir from 1932 to 1946 as seen by a local journalist.
• Sandeep Bamzai (2006): Bonfire of Kashmiryat Rupa & Co. New Delhi. ISBN 81-291-1060-1
• Sheikh Abdullah; M.Y.Taing (1985) Atish-e-Chinar (URDU). Shaukat Publications Srinagar (Often referred to as his autobiography. It has not been copyrighted in deference to Sheikh Abdullah's wishes)
• Tariq Ali (2003): The Clash of Fundamentalism. Verso Books. London.ISBN 978 1 85984 457 1
• Syed Taffazull Hussain (2008): Sheikh Abdullah - A biography. Wordclay. Indianapolis.IN. ISBN 978-1-60481-309-8
• APHC: White Paper On Elections in Kashmir (undated): (retrieved on 5 Nov 2008)
• Hussain Haqqani (2005): Pakistan Between Mosque and Military. Vanguard Books. Lahore. ISBN 969-402-498-6
• Baba Pyare Lal Bedi, Freda Marie (Houlston) Bedi (1949): Sheikh Abdullah: his life and ideals

[edit] New York Times reports

The New York Times published a total of 132 reports regarding Sheikh Abdullah from 1947 till his death in 1982. Some of the more important reports covering important events in his career are listed below.

• "OFFENSIVE IS FORECAST", (1948) The New York Times January 11, 1948
• " KASHMIR CHIEF HITS PAKISTAN IN U.N.; Moslem Sheikh Abdullah in Speech to Security Unit Holds Hitler soul transmigrated to Pakistan" (1948), The New York Times February 6
• "KASHMIR SETS UP A 'POPULAR' REGIME; Ruler Names Sheikh Abdullah Premier, Nehru Reports – Democratic Rule Pledged" (1948) The New York Times March 6
• "ISSUE OF RELIGION VITAL IN KASHMIR; Moslem Public Would Vote for Pakistan – Their Pro-Indian Leader Is Losing Ground" (1948) The New York Times August 25
• "PRIME MINISTER OF KASHMIR HERE" (1949) The New York Times December 16
• "KASHMIR ASSEMBLY POLL CALLED IRREGULAR AS PRO-INDIANS GAIN 58 SEATS BY DEFAULT" (1951) The New York Times September 28
• "KASHMIR FATE HELD UP TO LEGISLATURE; Accession Choice of Srinagar Congress, Not of U. N., Pakistan or India, Party Chief Says People to Decide Future Hold Matter of Prestige" (1951) The New York Times November 1
• "KIDNAP PLOT LAID TO PAKISTANI" (1951) The New York Times November 19
• "KASHMIR MAHARAJAH STRIPPED OF POWERS" (1951) The New York Times November 22
• KASHMIR CONFISCATES ALL LARGE ESTATES (1952) The New York Times April 1
• "CLAIM BY KASHMIR UPSETS NEW DELHI; Assertions of Sovereignty by Premier Seen Set to Coincide with Report by Graham" (1952)The New York Times April 12
• A CENTURY OF MAHARAJAHS COMES TO AN END IN KASHMIR (1952) The New York Times August 22
• NEHRU SAYS INDIAN EXTREMISTS SPUR RIOTING IN JAMMU IN SUBVERSIVE MOVE AGAINST SHEIKH (1952) The New York Times December 13
• ABDULLAH'S FOES RIOT AT KASHMIR ASSEMBLY (1953) The New York Times March 26
• KASHMIR'S REGIME SPLIT ON INDIA TIE; Premier, Once a Firm Backer of Accession, Voices Doubts – Rifts With Nehru Reported (1953) The New York Times August 3
• ABDULLAH OUSTED AS KASHMIR CHIEF; Formerly Pro-Indian Premier Is Dismissed Over New View on New Delhi Control (1953) The New York Times August 9
• JAILED KASHMIRI DENOUNCES INDIA; Sheikh Abdullah in Letter to U.N. Charges New Delhi With Repression Indians Warn of 'Plant' (1957) The New York Times August January 16
• SHEIKH ABDULLAH FREED IN KASHMIR; Sheikh Abdullah, 'Kashmir Lion,' Is Freed After 4¹⁄₂ Years in Jail; Former Leader, Imprisoned for Suspected Shift From India, Emerges Strong (1958) The New York Times January 9
• ABDULLAH TERMS PLEBISCITE VITAL; Tells Kashmiris It Is Up to Them to Decide to Join India or Pakistan (1958) The New York Times January 14
• KASHMIRI EX-LEADER BACKS PAKISTANI TIE (1958) The New York Times February 1
• SHEIKH ABDULLAH IS BACK IN PRISON; Sheikh Abdullah Is Rearrested By Kashmir Police as 'Hazard'; Former Prime Minister Held Without Charge – Warns Nehru on Indian Role The New York Times May 1
• Kashmir's "Lion" on Trial (1958) The New York Times October 26
• MOHAMMAD ABDULLAH DIES; LED INDIA'S STATE OF KASHMIR (1982) The New York Times September 9

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sheikh Abdullah

• Proclamation of May 1, 1951 on Jammu & Kashmir Constituent Assembly by Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh from the Official website of Government of Jammu and Kashmir, India
• Conflict in Kashmir: Selected Internet Resources by the Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA; University of California at Berkeley Library Bibliographies and Web-Bibliographies list
• English Daily from Kashmir
• More than hundred and fifty historical documents on Kashmir
• / Historical documents on Jammu and Kashmir collection of Prof. Vincent Ferraro, Mt. Holyoke College
• Eyewitness account of events in Jammu in 1947 which led to removal of Meher Chand Mahajan as Prime Minister and his replacement by Sheikh Abdullah.
• Report in The Nation giving details of Akbar Jehans family and first marriage purportedly with Lawrence of Arabia
• http://books.google.com/books?id=CWjLtfi-ssIC&pg=PA321&lpg=PA321&dq=heavily+guarded+sheikh+abdullahs+grave&source=web&ots=_vrjSk02Iy&sig=YsUfSMVzG5lAm-lowkO2PtSMVMc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
• http://www.chowk.com/articles/5304
• http://www.ummah.net/kashmir/docs/ody7.htm
• Chowdhary, Rekha. "Electoral Politics in the Context of Separatism and Political Divergence: An Analysis of 2009 Parliamentary elections in Jammu & Kashmir". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 3, 2009.