Life and Labour of the people of India,

Ali,A.Yusuf.

Published by John Murray, United Kingdom, 1907 360pp,orig.gilt cloth covers worn,stained.Exlib 9 illusts

Ali (1872- 1953) was a British-Indian barrister & scholar who wrote a number of books about Islam and whose translation of the Qur'an into English is one of the most widely known & used in the English-speaking world.

Ali first went to Britain in 1891 to study Law at St John's College, Cambridge and after graduating BA and LL.B in 1895 he returned to India in the same year with a post in the Indian Civil Service (ICS), later being called to the Bar in Lincoln's Inn in 1896 in absentia. He received his MA and LL.M in 1901.One commentator described him as an "incorrigible Anglophile." He married twice but both ended unhappily. With the outbreak of World War I, unlike many Muslims in Britain who felt uncomfortable with supporting the British war effort against fellow Muslims of the Ottoman Empire, Ali was an enthusiastic supporter of the Indian contribution to the war effort. He was a respected intellectual in India and Sir Muhammad Iqbal recruited him to be the Principal of Islamia College in Lahore, serving from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1935 to 1937. He was also a Fellow and syndic of the University of the Punjab (1925–8 and 1935–9) and a member of the Punjab University Enquiry Committee (1932–3). Among his publications were Muslim Educational Ideals (1923), Fundamentals of Islam (1929), Moral Education: Aims and Methods (1930), Personality of Man in Islam (1931), and The Message of Islam (1940). However, his best known scholarly work is his translation into English and commentary of the Qur'an, the Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary (1934–8; revised edition 1939–40), which remains one of the two most widely used English versions