Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi

Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi (1322-1397 AH / 1904-1977 CE) was an Indian Muslim scholar and academic who served as a professor at Calcutta University and later at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his scholarly contributions to hadith studies presented in an academic framework accessible to Western readers.

Siddiqi studied traditional Islamic sciences in India before pursuing higher academic qualifications. He became a professor at Calcutta University, teaching Islamic studies, and later spent time at McGill University in Montreal, where he produced work in the English academic tradition.

His most important work is Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features, a scholarly introduction to the science of hadith that presents the development of hadith literature, its collection, the sciences used to evaluate it, and the major hadith collections in a form accessible to English-speaking readers. This book became an important bridge between the traditional Islamic sciences of hadith and the Western academic study of Islam, and it remains a standard reference for students approaching hadith studies in English.

He also authored Musalman Awratun ki Talim (on the education of Muslim women) and other works in Urdu. His academic career bridged traditional Islamic learning and the Western academic study of Islam, making him a significant figure in the development of Islamic studies as a discipline in South Asian universities and internationally. He passed away in 1977.