M. Athar Ali

M. Athar Ali (18 January 1925 – 7 July 1998) was an Indian historian of Medieval Indian History. Throughout his career Ali was known to hold a strong stance against Hindu and Islamic extremism. He was a professor at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Medieval History at his Alma mater, Aligarh Muslim University.

Quotes about Ali

• “But the unfortunate aspect is that he examined Waqai reports from one angle – that is he only saw the problem of succession of Ajit Singh and totally ignored the high-handedness of the Mughal officials in the form of bricking the doors of the temples, demolition of temples, confiscation of the property relating to the trusts of those temples which were demolished during the period 1679-80.” (p. 148)
  • Prof. S.M. Azizuddin Husain, ‘Structure of Politics under Aurangzeb 1658–1707’ , quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 15.

• Prof. M. Athar Ali was a great historian. Very few people could match him in his profound knowledge of Persian historical texts and students of history will remain grateful to him for his innovative writings. But it is a tragedy that even such great historians propound theories and pronounce decisions on the basis of a single source of unsubstantiated information which is in contradiction to other available informations... When Prof. Ali knows that these valiant Rajputs had sacrificed all these assignments and were ready to die, then such calumny against a valiant race is a gross injustice to them and a daunting distortion of historical facts.... Thus, University students are being taught false history to defend an indefensible policy of a ruler who was a religious bigot in toto. Please have some mercy on glorious history!
  • Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 15.