After an exhausting journey, al-Shirwānī finally arrived in Calcutta in Shaʿbān
1224 /September 1809. He ended up staying for approximately nine years. His stay can be divided into two phases: the first phase lasted a year, and the second phase, encompasses the subsequent eight years. During the first phase, al-Shirwānī carried out his commercial affairs as he usually did, and he remained in constant contact with people in Yemen. In his exchanged correspondence with his father, brother, and friends, he referred to his first few months in Calcutta and received regular updates about the situation back home. In 1224/1809, there were at least 7 letters that illustrate the ordinariness of al-Shirwānī’s affairs as a regular merchant. As such, the letters contained information including descriptions of the quiet and flourishing city of Calcutta, updates on the political situation between the French and the British in India, and personal sentiments conveying that he felt homesick and was looking forward to returning to Yemen.192
Some other letters included information about the reasons for his delayed arrival in Calcutta, as well as some commercial information, like the prices of various goods
191Al-Shirwānī, Aḥmad, Al-ʿAjab al-ʿUjāb, 52.
192In Al-Shirwānī’s two letters to his father, both were sent in the same year, 1224/1809. In the first, he
informed him that he arrived to Calcutta in Bengala region, which was passing through quiet and flourishing situations. In the same letter he complained of his feeling homesick for Yemen, and said he looking forward to the opportunity to return to Yemen. In the second he informed him about the situation in India and the news of the conflict between France and Britain. Also he pointed to his homesick desire to return to Yemen. Al-Shirwānī, Aḥmad, Al-ʿAjab al-ʿUjāb, 66-68.
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that he had sourced.193 In addition, he received news about the difficult political situations in Yemen, and a letter that included some business advances.194
This early stage of his life in Calcutta was not easy; on the contrary, it was a difficult transition, as he suffered from several problems. He, particularly, suffered from nostalgia, and his desire to return to Yemen. In more than one occasion, al- Shirwānī expressed his homesickness in his poetry. The evolution of his emotions may be traced from one laden with hopes to return back to Yemen, to another that is contented with his current reality, despite its pain.
ُ ُ ذ اذإ م ُ ا د ُ أ
I was distanced from people, whenever they are mentioned
Tears are shed like rain َ ا ا و َ او ً ا ي أو ُ ذ ي
But I conceal my longing and suffering And I smile at their remembrance
ِ ا ىرأ أ ّ و ة ا ِ ا
I do not see joy in separation for living For how will there be joy for one
Torn by the thought.
ر م
ا ن و ما ا ھ
Peace be upon you, what pleases you is the ultimate desire
Those like myself, are not betrayed by patience و أ ّ ة ر ُ او ر ا
And I am patient with every hardship that pleases you
Patience is followed by victory
193In two other letters to his brother Ibrahim, dated in 1224/1809, he mentioned, in the first, that the
conditions of that year, meaning 1224/1809, forced him to delay his arrival to Calcutta after the accident, referring to the attack and plundering of his ship by the French navy; in the second, he indicated to some business news and a list of prices for some goods in Calcutta such as: textiles, wheat, corn, and some kinds of spices. Aḥmad, Al-ʿAjab al-ʿUjāb, 66-68.
194At the same year al-Shirwānī received a letters from his father, who asked him to locate his settlement
place, where is he, and in which city of India, in same letter his father reported to the difficult political situations in Yemen, resulted of the conflict in Tihāmah between the Zaydī imām and the troops of Wahhābīs. At the same year 1809, Al-Shirwānī received letter from his friend ʿAbdullāh .b Bashīr which included some advices about the business morals, and ʿAbdullal b. Bashīr advised al-Shirwānī to interest with the trade affairs because it is the source of his livelihood, he also requested to borrow the book of
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Al-Shirwānī did not maintain his commercial trade for long and his nostalgia would be set aside and eventually rechanneled. In 1810, a few months after his arrival to Calcutta, he was offered employment with the British Government as an Arabic language teacher, for it was one of the oriental languages that received attention from the British Government in India. This led him to recalculate his plans for the near future. Eventually, he made the decision to accept the position and reside in Calcutta. Al-Shirwānī explains his decision two times in his correspondences; the first is in his reply to one of the letters to his father, dated in 1225/1810, where he informed him that he got a job with the British, and would have to stay in Calcutta for some time; as a result, he would have to delay his return to Yemen. He said:
ر ا ا ا ﷲ ، ا ا ھ ل نإ ( ا) ا و ا ، و ة أ ، ا
ا ة ا إ ل رد
.
If you ask about my condition, by the grace of God, I am fine and I still stay in Bengal province, and if it was not for my work with the British Government, I would have been there with you.195
Secondly, in correspondence with his shaykh, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bahkalī, dated in 1227/1812, he mentioned that his journey to India was originally for trade but he made a decision to settle in Calcutta after he got the job.
Al-Shirwānī started his first experience as a teacher of the Arabic language in College of Fort William. Sometime later, he joined the Calcutta Madrasa. At both centers al-Shirwānīs spent around nine years. He was the first native Arabic speaker to work at the college. Al-Shirwānī owes this to the East India Company that offered him this chance, which transformed him from commercial adventurer to a civil servant, at one of the major Oriental institutes in the Orient.
Since then, al-Shirwānī’s life totally changed; he emerged as an erudite man of letter, linguist and editor of the Arabic language and literature. A number of Indian students and British officers learnt at his hand, and a number of them would go on to join the ranks of other Indian prominent scholars. In a testimony of al-Shirwānī,
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Mumtāz ʿAlī, in his book “ʾAthār al-Shuʿarāʾ” said that Aḥmad was a “ʿAlāmh”, which means scholar, and he became “Ḥarīrī and Mutanabbī” of his time.196
Al-Shirwānī’s involvement in the field of education, writing, and publishing came at a time that coincided with the Orientalism movement in India, which was passing through a flourishing and a golden age. It was also a period considered to have been witnessing extraordinary activity in the authoring, printing, and publishing of the oriental culture, where several institutions were founded and a number of linguistics and experts of the oriental languages and literature were invited to serve in these institutions.197
Yet in spite of al-Shirwānī’s noticeable success, he had to deal with certain difficult personalities who, due to ignorance of his position, knowledge, familial background, capacity, talent and skills, doubted and under mined his ability to contribute. He expressed this issue in his poems. For instance, in the poem below, he asserts his confidence and pride in his intellectual position, his al-Ansārī tribal origin, and his talents and skills as poet.
أو كارأ وذ
َ ر ا إ ت
I see you, a person with sound character
You alienated someone of al-Ansāri origin
ا ق ا أ
ِنا ا َ و
I am the son of Muḥammad whose pride exceeds that of Arab and other
ا ُ اذ أ ھو
ُ َ و أر ي و
And here I have earned pride through him
196Desnavī, ʿAbd al-Qawi, Bholpal aūrGhālib (Bhopal: Shʿbat Urdu, College, of Bhopal, 1969),19.
Al-Ḥarīrī Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim b. ʿAlī Al-Ḥarīrī, is an Arabic poet and Philosopher, he is known principally for his Maqāmā tor Sessions, he died1122/1757. Aḥmad b. Mūḥssin al-Jaʿfī, also known as Al-Mūtanbī, who is considered to be one of the greatest Arabic poets, died in 354/965. D.S. Margoliouth, “Ḥarīrī,” TheEncyclopedia of Islam (Leiden: the International of Academies, 1986), Vol.III. 221-222.
197A number of the educational institutions, were established in India at the time, interested to the oriental
cultural and languages and played important role to teaching these languages and present the oriental legacy and the culture to the other, among these institutions are: College of Fort William, Asiatic society, college of Fort St. George. For more information see: Kopf, British Orientalism and Bengal Renaissance The Dynamics of Indian Modernization 1773-1835 (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1969); Thomas Roebuck, Annals of the College of Fort William (Printed by Philip Pereira, At Hindoostanee, press 1819); Anat Kakba Priolker, The Printing Press in India: Its Beginning and Early Development
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And have exceeded my rivals in thought and understanding ِ ھز ُ ا م ا او َ أ باد ا و 198
Now I am more poetic than Zuhyir
And in literature, I am more knowledgeable
َ ا ع
َ ا ح ا ا
Neglect what’s said about the Yemeni out of ignorance
Would the blind ever see the shimmering morning light ا و ا ت ُ ھ َ
Yet in Calcutta, they were oblivious of my position.
They are ignorant, would their words reduce the reality of my status
أ و أ
ھ و ي
They ignored me, but I care not I pay no attention to such ignorance.199