Tariq Rahman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tariq ur Rahman
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| Born | 4 February 1949 Bareilly, United Provinces, Dominion of India
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| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Alma mater | University of Sheffield University of Strathclyde |
| Awards | Humboldt Research Award, 2012 Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction), 2014 Pride of Performance, 2004 HEC Distinguished National Professor, 2004 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistic history |
| Institutions | Quaid-i-Azam University Beaconhouse National University Peshawar University University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir |
Tariq Rahman (born February 4, 1949) is a famous Pakistani expert. He is a scholar, a newspaper columnist, and a writer. He has written many books and articles, mostly about linguistics, which is the study of language.
Dr. Rahman lives in Lahore, Pakistan. He has received many awards from his home country and from around the world for his amazing research and writing.
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Early Life and Learning
Tariq Rahman was born in Bareilly, India, on February 4, 1949. His family moved to Pakistan in 1951. His father, Sami Ullah Khan, was a math teacher at the Pakistan Military Academy.
Tariq Rahman went to Burn Hall School. Later, he joined the army as an officer in 1971. However, he decided to leave the army in 1978. This was because he did not agree with the military actions in East Pakistan (which is now Bangladesh). Bangladesh later honored him for this decision in 2013.
While in the army, he earned three master's degrees on his own. In 1979, he won a scholarship from the British Council. This helped him study in England at the University of Sheffield. He earned two more degrees there, including a PhD in literature in 1985. Later, he became more interested in social sciences than literature.
His Career Journey
In 1985, Tariq Rahman started teaching English at Peshawar University. Two years later, in 1987, he became a professor and head of the English Department at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. There, he started teaching linguistics.
In 1989, he earned another degree in linguistics from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He joined the National Institute of Pakistan Studies in 1990. In 2004, he was named a "distinguished national professor for life."
From 2011, he worked at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. He was the Dean of the School of Education and later the Dean of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. He retired from this role in September 2024. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford in England.
Awards and Special Honors
Tariq Rahman has received many important awards for his work:
- 1995–96: He was a Fulbright fellow in the USA.
- 2004: He received the Pride of Performance Award from the President of Pakistan for his research.
- 2004-5: He was the first person to hold the Pakistan Chair at the University of California, Berkeley.
- 2007: He became the director of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University.
- 2009: He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
- November 2011: He won the Humboldt Research Award. He was the first Pakistani to receive this special research award. This award recognized his many books, including Pakistani English (1990) and Language and Politics in Pakistan (1996).
- 2014: The University of Sheffield gave him a higher doctorate degree (Litt. D) for all his research.
- 2014: He received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) Award from the President of Pakistan.
- 2018: His book Names: A Study of Personal Names, Identity and Power in Pakistan won the Best Book (Social Sciences) award from the Higher Education Commission.
- 2018: He became a permanent member of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford.
- 2020: His book Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia: an Intellectual History won the Best Book of the Year (non-fiction) prize at the Karachi Literary Festival.
- 2021: He was elected a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.
- 2024: His book Pakistan's Wars won the Best Book of the Year (Non-fiction) prize from UBL Bank.
His Research and Books
To write his book From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History, Dr. Rahman traveled to many cities in Pakistan and four other countries. He studied old texts in Urdu, Persian, and Hindi. He even learned the Devanagari script (used for Hindi) and Persian when he was 58 years old!
He has written three collections of short stories and edited two books. Most of his research is about the history of language in society, language and politics, and how language is used in education. He focuses on Muslims in northern India and Pakistan. He has also written about names and intellectual history.
His books have been published by well-known publishers like Oxford University Press and Orient Blackswan. His recent books include Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia: an Intellectual History (2018) and Pakistan's Wars: an Alternative History (2022). His newest book is Handbook of Mirza Ghalib's Poetry and Poetics (2024).
