Mahmud al-Hasan was born in 1851 in the town of Bareilly to a family with a scholarly background. His father, Muhammad Zulfiqar Ali, was a scholar of the Arabic language and worked in the education department of the British East India Company's administration in the region. As a child, Mahmud al-Hasan was with his father in Meerut during the Mutiny of 1857. Hasan received a traditional Islamic education with a strong emphasis on the study of Islam, the Persian language and Urdu. His primary education was under Maulana Mongeri, Maulana Abdul Latif, and later, his uncle, Maulana Mahtab Ali. While Mahmud al-Hasan was studying the books Mukhtasar al-Quduri and Sharh-i-Tahdhib, the college known as Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866. His father sent him to the newly established school, where he was the first student. He completed his basic studies in 1286 AH, after which he studied under the guidance of Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi, with whom he studied hadith. After that, he studied higher level books under his father. He graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband in 1873. In 1874, Mahmud al-Hasan joined Darul Uloom Deoband as a teacher and later got promoted to the position of the college principal in 1890.
Revolutionary activities
Although focused on his work at the school, Maulana Mahmud al-Hasan developed an interest in the political environment of British India and the world. When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I against the British Empire in 1914, Muslims across the world were concerned of the future of the Sultan of Ottoman Empire, who was the caliph of Islam and spiritual leader of the global Muslim community. Known as the Khilafat struggle, its leaders Mohammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali organised protests across the country. Mahmud al-Hasan was fervently active in encouraging Muslim students to join the movement. Hasan organised efforts to start an armed revolution against British rule from both within and outside India. He launched a programme to train volunteers from among his disciples in India and abroad who joined this movement in a large number. The most eminent among them were Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari. Sending Sindhi to Kabul and Ansari to the North-West Frontier Province to mobilize popular support and recruit volunteers, Mahmud al-Hasan himself traveled to Hijaz to secure Turkish support in 1915. Obtaining the Turkish governor Ghalib Pasha's signature on a declaration of war against the British, Mahmud al-Hasan planned to return to India via Baghdad and Balochistan to start the rebellion. The plan, referred to as the Silk Letter Conspiracy, however, was leaked and captured by the Punjab CID, and he was arrested in Mecca. He was imprisoned in Malta, for more than three years before his release in 1920. After returning to British India, Mahmud al-Hasan joined the Khilafat movement. He also issued his famous fatwa of non-cooperation against the British rule in India.
