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Sir Syed Day 2021: AMU marks 204th birth anniversary of its founder
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan formed the present-day AMU in 1875 as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College.
Sunday, October 17, marks the 204th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, a philosopher and educationist, who, in 1875, established the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College, known today as the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The occasion is celebrated as Sir Syed Day on the university's campus.
“Vice-chancellor Professor Tariq Mansoor requests your gracious online presence at Sir Syed Day Commemoration Celebration, October 17, at 11am,” AMU's official Twitter handle posted on the eve of the celebrations.
Various awards such as AMU Outstanding Researchers Award, Young Researchers Award will be presented during Sunday's ceremony. According to a press release, Professor Qamrul Hasan Ansari will receive the award in the former category, while Dr Mohammad Zain Khan, Dr Mohammad Tariq and Dr Mohammad Arshad Bari will be honoured under the latter.
Meanwhile, several AMU alumni took to Twitter to pay tribute to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was born on October 17, 1817 in Delhi, and began his career as a civil servant. He established institutions such as the Gulshan School at Muradabad (1859), Victoria School at Ghazipur (1863), as well as a Scientific Society for Muslims (1863). In 1875, he established the MAO, patterning it after the Oxford and Cambridge Universities, notes amu.ac.in.
Known in Urdu as the Madarsatul Uloom, the college, in 1920, was renamed to AMU, as it is known today, under the Aligarh Muslim University Act. One of the top universities in the country, it has three off-campus centres as well, with one each in Kerala (Malappuram), West Bengal (Murshidabad) and Bihar (Kishanganj).
