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{{Short description|Indian freedom fighter and scholar}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Orphan|date=November 2021}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2017}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox religious biography
|religion = Islam
| name = Abdur Rahim Popalzai II
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1890 
| birth_place = Peshawar, British India
| death_date = {{death year and age|1944|1890}} 
| death_place = [[Peshawar]], British India
| nationality = Indian
| other_names =
| occupation = Religious scholar, poet and journalist
| alma_mater = [[Darul Uloom Deoband]]
| teachers = [[Mahmud Hasan Deobandi]], [[Ghulam Rasool Hazarvi]]
| years_active =
| known_for = Freedom Movement against British rule in India
| notable_works =
}}

'''Maulana Abdur Rahim Popalzai II '''was a freedom fighter, religious scholar, poet, and journalist in the united India. Born in 1890 in Peshawar, Popalzai spent his entire life in the struggle to liberate the people from slavery and the exploitative capitalist system. Popalzai established a seminary at [[Masjid Qasim Ali Khan]], launched an organization, Nojawanan-i-Sarhad, and a newspaper, Chingari, to educate the people and create awareness among them about their rights.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/142992/tributes-paid-to-maulana-popalzai|title=Tributes paid to Maulana Popalzai|first=Bureau|last=Report|date=11 June 2005|publisher=}}</ref> Maulana Abdur Rahim Popalzai led demonstrations against discriminatory laws like the [[Frontier Crimes Regulation]] against the people of the province. Maulana Popalzai married in 1918. He had a daughter, Safia Begum, and a son, Abdul Rauf. He died in 1944.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last= |first= |date= 2005 |title= Celebrities of NWFP |url= |location= Pesahwar |publisher= Pakistan Study Centre University of Peshawar |page= |isbn= 9698928022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Javed |last2=Islam |first2=Prof Dr Fakhr-ul |title=The Popalzai Family: {{as written|I|t's [sic]}} Role in Various Religio-Political Movements in British North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), 1927- 1940 |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society |date=30 June 2021 |volume=69 |issue=2 |id={{ProQuest|2679344447}} |url=https://www.phs.com.pk/index.php/phs/article/view/118 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |title=History: Allama Abdur Rahim Popalzai |url=https://allamapopalzai.com/2020/08/18/history-allama-abdur-rahim-popalzai/ |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=Allama Abdul Raheem Popalzai |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Role in the Freedom movement ==
Popalzai took part in the [[Khilafat Movement]] in his teens. He regularly published a journal by the name of Sarfaroosh and remained engaged in the freedom movement against the [[United Kingdom|British]] throughout his life. With his [[leftist]] leanings, he and other "[[comrades]]" set up a youth organisation called Nawajan Bharat Sabha. When the British banned Nawajan Baharat Sabha, he was elected head of the [[Socialist Party]]. Abdur Rahim Popalzai II played a leading role in the events which lead up to the [[Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre|Qissa Khwani massacre]] and was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the uprising. Popalzai borrowed his anti-imperialist ideology from [[Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi]] and [[Husain Ahmad Madani|Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani.]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/740873/a-popalzai-lune-the-writing-on-qasim-khan-mosques-walls/|title=A Popalzai Lune: The writing on Qasim Khan mosque's walls - The Express Tribune|date=26 July 2014|publisher=}}</ref> In 1939, Abdur Rahim Popalzai II protested in Bannu against the British bombing of Waziristan, for which he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.<ref name="auto"/>

== Education ==
All his five elder brothers died young. Thus Abdul Rahim remained the elder living son of Abdul Hakim. According to their family tradition, Abdul Hakim taught his son at home until 1908. Abdul Rahim learned from his father the meaning and virtues of simplicity, kindness, asceticism, abstinence and mysticism. With completion of his basic study, Abdul Hakim sent him to [[Rampur, Uttar Pradesh|Rampur]], [[Delhi]] for further study, and later to Darul Uloom Deoband where he became a student of [[Mahmud Hasan Deobandi]]. He received a certificate from Sheikh-ul-Hind in Hadith. Maulana Popalzai completed his studies at Deoband and returned Peshawar in 1912.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Qasmi|first1=Muhammad Tayyib |title=Darul Uloom Diary: Disciples of Imām al-Falsafa Maulana Syed Ahmad Dehlavi and Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmud Hasan Deobandi|publisher=Idara Paigham-e-Mahmud|location=Deoband |pages=52–53|date=2013|language=ur}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 April 2022 |title=A leftist maulana |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/950814-a-leftist-maulana |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=The News on Sunday |language=en}}</ref>

== Political Education ==
He attached himself to the movement of [[Shah Waliullah Dehlawi|Shah Waliullah]] under the able leadership of Mahmud-ul-Hassan who trained him on particular lines and introduced him to all the workers of the movement in and outside India. Maulana was very much impressed by the methods and tactics of the [[Marxists]] and it was one of the reasons that he was dubbed in his lifetime as "Marxist Maulana".<ref name="auto"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Authority control}}
==Further reading==
* {{Cite web |last=gazetteterrymurphy |date=2023-11-12 |title=10 from Harvard named Rhodes Scholars Harvard Gazette |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/11/10-from-harvard-named-rhodes-scholars/ |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}
* {{Cite web |last=Khalique |first=Harris |date=2021-10-03 |title=COLUMN: THE PEOPLE'S MUFTI |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1649722 |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandra |first=Ram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hknJqf84cLEC&dq=abdur+rahim+popalzai&pg=PA278 |title=History of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha |date=2007 |publisher=Unistar Books |isbn=978-81-89899-61-5 |pages=218 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzMrAAAAIAAJ |title=Suba-e-Sarhad Ki Inqilabi Tehrīkein Aur Maulana Abdur Rahim Popalzai |trans-title=Revolutionary Movements of Frontier Province and Maulana Abdul Rahim Popalzai|publisher=Fiction House |year=1991 |language=ur}}
* {{Cite web |last=Mashal |first=Ahmad Ali |date=3 June 2021 |title=امامِ حریت مفتی مولانا عبدالرحیم پوپل زئی |url=https://lafzuna.com/history/s-22458/ |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=Lafzuna |language=ur}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pullat |first=Sury |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PebBBAAAQBAJ&q=abdur+rahim+popalzai+ceiling&pg=PA198 |title=Destined Encounters |date=2014-09-19 |publisher=PartridgeIndia |isbn=978-1-4828-3639-4 |language=en}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popalzai, Abdur Rahim}}
[[Category:Pashtun people]]
[[Category:People from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]]
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Pashto-language poets]]
[[Category:Pashtun Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam]]

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Abdur Rahim Popalzai - Revision history

TeresitaBunch at 13:27, 13 February 2026