Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan

Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan (1724 to 1807) was a Sunni Muslim hakim, a physician of Unani or Greek medicine, of some importance in Mughal India at the end of the eighteenth century. He was born in Delhi to a family of theologians and physicians whose ancestors had come to India from present-day Uzbekistan in the time of the emperor Babur, and who traced their descent from the Naqshbandi Sufi shaikh Ubayd-Allah Mahmud Ahrar. He studied at a Delhi madrasa run by the sons of the scholar Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and became royal hakim at the court of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, who gave him the title Ashraf-al-Hukma, The Best of Physicians; he may also have treated the emperor's son Akbar II. His family became known as the Sharifi family and the Delhi school of hakims. A prolific writer, he composed some seventeen books on medicine, the most famous being Elaaj al-Amraaz (The Cures for Diseases), compiled the most complete and authoritative collection of Unani medicinal formulas in one work, introduced aspects of European science into Unani medicine, and wrote in Persian and Arabic, including a dictionary of Indian drugs. He also translated the Quran into Urdu, widely regarded as the first such translation. He was the great-grandfather of the hakim, scholar and politician Hakim Ajmal Khan. He died in 1807 and was buried in Delhi near the tomb of the Sufi Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki.

Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan (1724 to 1807) was a Sunni Muslim hakim, a physician of Unani or Greek medicine, of some importance in Mughal India at the end of the eighteenth century. He was born in Delhi to a family of theologians and physicians whose ancestors had come to India from present-day Uzbekistan in the time of the emperor Babur, and who traced their descent from the Naqshbandi Sufi shaikh Ubayd-Allah Mahmud Ahrar. He studied at a Delhi madrasa run by the sons of the scholar Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and became royal hakim at the court of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, who gave him the title Ashraf-al-Hukma, The Best of Physicians; he may also have treated the emperor's son Akbar II. His family became known as the Sharifi family and the Delhi school of hakims. A prolific writer, he composed some seventeen books on medicine, the most famous being Elaaj al-Amraaz (The Cures for Diseases), compiled the most complete and authoritative collection of Unani medicinal formulas in one work, introduced aspects of European science into Unani medicine, and wrote in Persian and Arabic, including a dictionary of Indian drugs. He also translated the Quran into Urdu, widely regarded as the first such translation. He was the great-grandfather of the hakim, scholar and politician Hakim Ajmal Khan. He died in 1807 and was buried in Delhi near the tomb of the Sufi Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/