Home of alama Iqbal | Complete History Of Iqbal Manzil | Iqbal House Sialkot
Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in an ethnic Kashmiri family in Sialkot within the Punjab Province of British India (now in Pakistan).His family was Kashmiri Pandit (of the Sapru clan) that converted to Islam in the 15th century and which traced its roots back to a south Kashmir village in Kulgam. In the 19th century, when the Sikh Empire was conquering Kashmir, his grandfather's family migrated to Punjab. Iqbal's grandfather was an eighth cousin of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, an important lawyer and freedom fighter who would eventually become an admirer of Iqbal. Iqbal often mentioned and commemorated his Kashmiri lineage in his writings.According to scholar Annemarie Schimmel, Iqbal often wrote about his being "a son of Kashmiri-Brahmans but (being) acquainted with the wisdom of Rumi and Tabriz."
Iqbal's father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad (died 1930), was a tailor, not formally educated, but a religious man. Iqbal's mother Imam Bibi, a Kashmiri from Sambrial, was described as a polite and humble woman who helped the poor and her neighbours with their problems. She died on 9 November 1914 in Sialkot.[ Iqbal loved his mother, and on her death he expressed his feelings of pathos in an elegy:
Who would wait for me anxiously in my native place?
Who would display restlessness if my letter fails to arrive?
I will visit thy grave with this complaint:
Who will now think of me in midnight prayers?
All thy life thy love served me with devotion—
When I became fit to serve thee, thou hast departed.
Early education
Iqbal was four years old when he was sent to a mosque to receive instruction in reading the Qur'an.[citation needed] He learned the Arabic language from his teacher, Syed Mir Hassan, the head of the madrasa and professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, where he matriculated in 1893. He received an Intermediate level with the Faculty of Arts diploma in 1895. The same year he enrolled at Government College University, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, English literature and Arabic in 1897, and won the Khan Bahadurddin F.S. Jalaluddin medal as he performed well in Arabic. In 1899, he received his Master of Arts degree from the same college and won first place in philosophy in the University of the Punjab.
Iqbal Manzil was purchased in 1861 by Mohammad Rafique, the great-grandfather of Allama Iqbal. The house was originally very small, but each successor kept adding to it and the building grew in size.
After the death of his father Noor Muhammad, Iqbal's his elder brother, Ata Mohammad, was named the owner of the Iqbal Manzil. Ata Mohammed's sons after his death, left the house and took up residences in Karachi and Lahore.[3]
Allama Iqbal's son Javed Iqbal was born in the Iqbal Manzil on 5 October 1924.[4] Javed Iqbal spent his childhood in Lahore but never entered Iqbal Manzil again. Allama Iqbal's other son Aftab Iqbal resided in Karachi for the better part of his life. Allama Iqbal also had a daughter named Munira Iqbal.
Since 1986, Riaz Hussain Naqvi has been the curator at Iqbal Manzil.
Soon after Iqbal's death in April 1938, a committee was formed that was presided over by Chaudhary Mohammed Hussain.[5]
A major problem in the realisation of this monument was a lack adequate funds. The committee resolved not to accept any donations from the local governments and state rulers, and so funds were raised through the contributions from Iqbal's friends, admirers and disciples
