Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan


Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan was a Sunni Muslim Hakim of some importance in Mughal India at the end of 18th century.

Early life and career

Muhammad Sharif Khan was born in 1722 in Delhi. His ancestors arrived in India from modern day Uzbekistan during the time of Mughal emperor Babur. Muhammad Sharif Khan studied at a madrasa in Delhi that was run by the sons of eminent religious scholar of the Naqshbandi order Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. He was the royal Hakim at the court of Mughal emperor Shah Alam II who gave him the title Ashraf-al-Hukma. Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan also possibly treated this emperor's son Akbar II.

Achievements

Since Hakim Sharif was based in Delhi, his family of hakims, the "Sharifi family", came to be recognised as the Delhi school of Hakims.
Muhammad Sharif Khan came from a "a family of theologians and physicians", and ultimately descended from Ubayd-Allah Mahmud Ahrar, "an influential Sufi Shaikh of the Naqshbandi order in Transoxiana".
He was a prolific writer, and wrote some seventeen books on medicine, of which the most famous was "Elaaj al-Amraaz", which is still considered a great source of reference in the field. He is also famous for compiling the most complete and authoritative collection of Unani medicinal formulas into one master work.
He also translated the Quran into Urdu, which is widely regarded as the first translation of the Qur'an into that language.
He was responsible for introducing aspects of European science in Unani medicine during that period, and he also composed works in Persian, as well as in Arabic, including a dictionary of Indian drugs.
He is the great-grandfather of Hakim Ajmal Khan, a renowned hakim, scholar, and politician of his time in British India.

Death

Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan died in 1807 and was buried close to the tomb of Sufi Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki in Delhi, India.