| Description | Records of Shaikh Abdul Aziz in Hammersmith including postcards, photograph and journal
Shaikh Abdul Aziz (1884-1970), barrister, historian, teacher and scholar, arrived in London in 1904 to read for the bar, He rented a first floor flat at 69 Shepherds Bush Road where he was joined by fellow students, Shaikh Abdul Qadir and Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal. In 1906 they moved to a rented house, 40 Dewhurst Road. Aziz was called to the bar in 1908 and in September of that year left for India.
Abdul Aziz was a distinguished historian of Mughal India and a pioneer of Indian social history. He knew ten languages and lectured on history, literature and art. He lost all his possessions, including his 25,000 volume library and private papers when he had to flee his home after the partition of India in 1947.
Abdul Aziz married his cousin, Zainab, in 1903. The postcards from his time in Hammersmith were presented by his surviving son, Professor Khursheed Kamal Aziz, who also prepared the brief biography |