Hakim Habibur Rahman : Founder of Unani Medicine in Bangladesh

 Hakim Habibur Rahman

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Rahman, Hakim Habibur (1881-1947) Unani physician, litterateur, journalist, politician. Besides being a famous physician of the Unani School of medicine, Hakim Habibur Rahman was a highly influential person socially and politically. Born on 23 March 1881 at Chhota Katara mahalla of Dhaka city, he received his early education, like most other members of the Muslim aristocracy, at home.

Habibur Rahman Hakim

He obtained his formal education in classical style from the Dhaka Madrasah and Kanpur Darul Ulum Madrasah. On being trained in the Unani system of medicine at Lucknow, Delhi and Agra, he began his medical practice in 1904. He was a close associate of Nawab Sir khwaja salimullah. In 1930 he founded the Tibbia Habibia College in Dhaka. In recognition of his Unani medical service to the people of Eastern Bengal, the British Government awarded him the classical title of Shefa-ul-Mulk in 1939. Hakim Habibur Rahman
Alongside his medical practice Rahman also wrote profusely. He began editing Al Mushriq, an Urdu monthly in 1906. He also launched Jadu, another Urdu monthly, jointly with Khwaja Adel in 1924. But the paper had a short life of only two years. Often he wrote under the pseudonym of Ahsan. His numerous writings include Al-Fariq, Hayat-e-Sukrat, Asudegan-e-Dhaka and Dhaka Panchas Baras Pahle. The last named is a lucid account of the social and cultural life of Dhaka city of his time. Though a Bengali by birth, all his literary and scientific cultivation were pursued in Urdu, at that time the lingua franca of the Muslim Ashraf (upper) class.
Habibur Rahman was a great collector of manuscripts, coins, weapons, etc. Most of his works and collections are now preserved at the Dhaka University Library under the title Habibur Rahman Collections. Hakim Habibur Rahman donated 231 old coins, including gold and silver coins, to the Dhaka Museum in 1936. He died on 23 February 1947. [Hashem Sufi]