Mohammed Shakeb: Preserver of Mughal Archival Documents and Reconstructor of Libraries
A tribute to a polymath historian who recently passed away.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb at the Qutb Shahi tombs in Hyderabad, October 2013. Photo: Author provided
History10/Feb/2021
I first met Dr Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb in the summer of 2011, as a naïve PhD student whoâd arrived in Hyderabad from Los Angeles wanting to âread Shah Jahanâs documentsâ. He asked me the very standard question asked of research students in India, âWhat is your topic?â
I only had a rather incoherent answer to give to Shakeb, the man who had, among other things, created the Mughal Record Room, in what is today known as the Telangana State Archives. Located in a nondescript building at the periphery of the Osmania University campus in the dusty precinct of Tarnaka, this institution has undergone numerous transformations over the course of a half-century of its existence in Hyderaba
Niece pays tributes to Scholar Zia Shakeb
By News Desk| Published: 30th January 2021 12:40 pm IST Dr. Isra Siraj (childhood) with Dr.Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb on her Roza Kushai Ceremony
Dr Syeda Fatima Manzelat
It is a moment of extreme sadness and mourning at the demise of Dr. Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb, my beloved uncle (
Mamu Saheb), whose soul calmly departed in the early hours of Wednesday, the 20
th of January in London. He is survived by his wife Mrs. Farhat Shakeb, the only son Mr. Mohammed Manzoor Ahmed Shakeb, two daughters and four sisters, along with a multitude of grandchildren.