Dar-ul-ulum, Hyderabad

The Dar-ul-ulum was the first school of the Hyderabad government.¹ It was founded in Hyderabad city in 1854.¹ It trained the state’s early teachers and later became a college of Oriental learning, which specialised in Islamic theology and Islamic studies.¹²³ Before Osmania University was founded, it was one of only two places of higher learning in the state.³

The first state school

According to the Imperial Gazetteer of 1909, state education began in 1854, when the Dar-ul-ulum was founded.¹ In 1868 education passed to an Assistant Minister of what was then called the Miscellaneous department.¹ From then on, every candidate for a schoolmaster’s post had to train at the Dar-ul-ulum and get a certificate.¹

Two years later the control of public instruction in the city passed to Mr. Wilkinson, the Principal of the Engineering College.¹ Under him the Dar-ul-ulum was split into five branch schools.¹⁴ An Anglo-vernacular school (teaching English and a local language) was also founded.¹⁴

An Oriental college

By the 1890s the Dar-ul-ulum was an Oriental college with a large school attached.² It was affiliated to the Punjab University for degrees in Oriental learning.² In the year before Campbell wrote in 1898, it had 55 students in the college and 317 in the school.² Campbell counted it among the three colleges of the state, with the Nizam College and a college at Aurangabad.⁵²

That year 36 candidates from the state sat the Punjab University’s Oriental examinations, such as Munshi and Maulvi.² Seventeen of them passed.² In 1909 the Imperial Gazetteer again called it the Dar-ul-ulum or Oriental College, a purely state institution.⁶ It still sent candidates to the Punjab’s Oriental titles examinations.⁶

After Osmania University

The Registrar of Osmania University later wrote that before 1917 the state had only two places of higher learning.³ They were the Dar-ul-ulum and the Nizam College.³ He wrote that the Dar-ul-ulum’s examinations were wholly under the state’s Education Department.³ In his view it had become almost moribund (close to dying), in spite of generous stipends to its students.³ Attempts to add modern sciences to its courses, he said, were half-hearted.³ This is the view of an officer of the new university.³

When the Osmania University College opened, it took over the boarding house of “the old Darul-Uloom”.⁷ It ran it as a hostel for Muslim students, with 52 boarders in 1919–20.⁷

The university recognised the Dar-ul-ulum’s titles.⁸ Its rules let a Maulvi Fazil, Maulvi Kamil or Munshi Fazil of the Dar-ul-ulum of six years’ standing join the register of graduates.⁸ In 1928–29 one of the university’s recognised high schools was the “Osmania High School, Darul Ulum”.⁹

Where the sources disagree

No disagreement was found among the sources used for this page.

Footnotes

1. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 73 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 65 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Census of India 1931, Vol. XXIII: H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, Part I: Report (1933), p. 216, “The Osmania University” by H. A. Ansari, Registrar (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 74 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 64 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 75 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

7. Annual Administration Report of the Osmania University, 1329 F. (1919–20), report of the Principal, p. 4 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Osmania University Calendar, 1335–1336 Fasli (1928–29), p. 66, supplementary rules for the register of graduates (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

9. Osmania University Calendar, 1928–29, Appendix III, p. 250 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩