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Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, born at Delhi, India on 17th October, 1817 in a noble family of Mughal empire. Sir Syed Khan was more influenced by his mother Aziz un Nisa who took great interest in the education and upbringing of Sir Syed and her rigid discipline and supervision guided him in his character formation. His father, Sayyid Muhammad Muttaqi received an allowance from the Mughal administration, became something of a religious recluse and his maternal grand father Khwaja Fariduddin had twice served as prime minister of the Mughal emperor of his time and had also held positions of trust under the East India Company. After the deaths of his grandfather in 1928 and father in 1938 his family faced great difficulties. Thus young Syed Ahmad was compelled at the early age of 21 to look for a career. Starting as a clerk with the East India Company in 1938, he qualified three years later as a sub-judge and served in the judicial department at various places. Syed’s brother established one of the first printing press at Delhi and started one of the earlier newspapers in Urdu, the principal language of the Muslims of northern India. His career as an author (in Urdu) started at the age of 23 with religious tracts. In 1847 he brought out a noteworthy book, Athar Assandid ("Monuments of the Great"), on the antiquities of Delhi. His other Literary works include Jila-ul-qulub bi -Zikr-il Mahbub, Tuhfa-i-Hasan,Tahsil-fi-jar-e-Saqil, Namiqa dar bayan masala tasawwur-i-Shaikh, Silsilat ul-Mulk, Asbab-e-Bhaghawath-e-Hind (The Causes of the Indian Mutiny), Loyal Muhammadans of India, Tabyin-ul-Kalam, A Series of Essays on the Life of Muhammad and Subjects Subsidiary Therein. Apart from that he also wrote a commentary on Bible and Quran. This great scholar and leader died on 27th March, 1898, at Aligarh, India

Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) was a Muslim religious leader, educationalist, and politician. He contributed to the intellectual and institutional foundation of Muslim modernization in southern Asia.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan emerged as a political leader of the Muslim community of Northern India in 1867 mainly due to the Hindi-Urdu controversy. In response of adoption of Hindi as a second language of UP (United provinces now Uttar Pardesh) Sir Syed pleaded for Urdu as the language of Muslims of India. Earlier Urdu has been developed by Muslim rulers of India and was used as a secondary language to Persian in the Mughal courts during Mughal dynasty. But after the decline of Mughal dynasty and during British rule north Indian Hindus demanded Hindi as the second official language strongly opposed by Sir Syed. Sir Syed controversially exclaimed that "Urdu was the language of gentry and Hindi that of the vulgar. His remarks provoked a hostile response from Hindu leaders, who unified across the nation to demand the recognition of Hindi. But Sir Syed continued his job by establishing schools in Urdu medium and the Scientific Society under Sir Syed translated western works only into Urdu.

After the Success of Hindi movement Sir Syed increased his efforts to present Urdu as the Muslim Heritage and the language of Muslims throughout the India. He focused his political and educational work exclusively for Muslim interests persuading British to give Urdu the due importance. Meanwhile his collegues Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Maulvi Abdul Haq developed organizations such as the Urdu Defence Association and the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, committed to the perpetuation of Urdu. The efforts by Sir Syed and his another collegue Shibli Nomani resulted in adoption of Urdu as the official language of Hyderabad State and the medium of education in Usmania University.
Sir Syed was criticized by the Hindus and a fraction of orthodox muslims to politicize the Urdu issue and making differences between Hindus and Muslims but Sir Syed knowing the importance of education for the progress of any society especially Muslims worked hard for the cause resulting a great Urdu medium university in India for Muslims. The Aligarh Muslim University played a great role in educating Indian Muslims during the British rule and is still a source of education and respect for Muslims in today’s India.