Quick Info→
Hometown: Vadodara, Gujarat
Wife: Sayera Habib
Age: 92 Years
| Bio/Wiki | |
|---|---|
| Profession(s) | Historian, Professor |
| Physical Stats | |
| Eye Colour | Black |
| Hair Colour | White |
| Career | |
| Awards | 1982: Watumull Prize of American Historical Association 2005: Padma Bhushan by the Government of India 2016: Yash Bharti Award |
| Personal Life | |
| Date of Birth | 10 August 1931 (Monday) |
| Age (as of 2024) | 93 Years |
| Birthplace | Vadodara, Gujarat |
| Zodiac sign | Leo |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Vadodara, Gujarat |
| College/University | • Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh • Oxford University, United Kingdom |
| Religion | Islam |
| Relationships & More | |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Family | |
| Wife/Spouse | Sayera Habib (Economics Professor at Aligarh Muslim University) |
| Children | Son(s)– Faiz Habib (cartographer at the Center of Advanced Study), Amber Habib (Head of the department in mathematics at Shiv Nadar University) Daughter– Saman Habib (Scientist)  |
| Parents | Father– Mohammad Habib (Indian Historian) (deceased) Mother– Sohaila Habib |
| Maternal Grandfather | Abbas Tyabji (Indian Freedom Fighter) |
Some Lesser Known Facts About Irfan Habib
- He is an Indian historian of the ancient and medieval India, following the approach of Marxist historiography.
- He is known for his strong stance against Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalism.
- Some of the books written by him includes the Agrarian System of Mughal India (1963), An Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps with Detailed Notes (1982), An Atlas of Ancient Indian History (2012).
- Irfan worked at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a history professor from 1969 to 1991, after returning from Oxford.
- In 1991, he gave his Radhakrishnan lecture at the Oxford University.
- Since 1997, Irfan has worked as a member of the Elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Royal Historical Society.
- He has majorly worked on the topics like Ancient India, historical geography, history of Indian technology, medieval administrative and economic history and colonialism and its impact on Indian historiography.
- Amiya Kumar Bagchi, an Indian Political Economist once described Irfan Habib as “one of the two most prominent Marxist historians of India today and at the same time, one of the greatest living Marxist historians of India between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries”.
- From 1975 to 1977, Irfan was the Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Studies, AMU.
- From 1986 to 1990, he was the general secretary, sectional president, and then the General President of the Indian History Congress (1981).
- He led the historians working at the Indian History Congress of 1998 for the resolution against the Saffronisation.
- He held BJP and specially the MDRH minister responsible for inventing facts and dates to suit their interpretation of Indian history.
- He convicted BJP for removing the chapters about Muslim rule from the school textbooks and the references of Muslim’s contribution to the country’s freedom struggle. He argued that these revisions aim to deny Muslims their place in India’s history and is a Islamophobic agenda.
