ABSTRACT
By his own account, Abdul Aziz was born in a poor family in Bhojpur, district Muradabad, and his childhood was spent in the house of his maternal grandparents. Religious education ran in the family. His grandfather himself was a hafiz and was well known in Mubarakpur. A good orator, Shukrullah Mubarakpuri soon started to have an influence within the qasba. Shukrullah Mubarakpuri was not just an Alim, but was also actively interested in politics of the day. He was a leading organiser of Jamiat Ulama-e Hind in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. For Abdul Wahab, closeness to Shukrullah Mubarakpuri meant an increase in his social network, which could have arrested his declining social and economic status in Azamgarh. Madrasas became the means through which ‘true’ Islamic knowledge was sought to be disseminated among the people of Mubarakpur.
