With
the very establishment of the Muslim Anglo Oriental College on January 08, 1877, at Aligarh, Mathematics was recognized as
an important discipline, and the necessity to appoint a Professor in the subject was strongly felt. According to the Founder
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s own report, however, paucity of funds came in the way of appointing a European as a Professor.
However, Pandit Ram Shanker Mishra was appointed Professor as early as 1884. Within a year he was whisked away by Agra College,
Agra, and Professor Harold Cox joined as Professor of Mathematics and Political Economy. He had been a student of Jesus College,
Cambridge, where he obtained Tripos of Mathematics. Before joining Aligarh, Professor Cox had served as Lecturer in several
colleges and edited The Cambridge Review. He resigned in 1887 to take up a teaching job in England.
The renowned mathematician Professor Jadav Chandra Chakravarti thus joined the staff as Professor of Mathematics on
January 01, 1888. In 1889 he was appointed as Registrar - a post which he continued to hold at much inconvenience to himself
but to the great advantage to the institution. Professor Chakravarti authored the most popular text book in Mathematics, used
throughout India for more than 100 years, and translated into many Indian and European languages. He was the teacher of Dr.
Sir Ziauddin Ahmad who received Doctoral degrees from both India and Europe. Using imaginatively fresh insight, Professor
Chakravarti worked for college curriculum in Mathematics by treating the fundamental principles and examples which had hitherto
been inaccessible, unused or even entirely unknown.
By 1910-11, the College had the unique distinction
of having on its staff as many as three Professors of Mathematics, Mr. J.C. Chakravarti, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad and Mr. M.A. Aziz.
Mr. Abdul Majeed Kureishy was appointed as Assistant Professor in May 1910. Professor Chakravarti retired from the services
of the college on February 28, 1916. The Chakravarti Medal was instituted in his honour.
One of the earliest mathematicians was Dr. Sir Ziauddin Ahmad who, along with Professor Chakravarti
founded the first group of teachers and research workers whose main interests were in Astronomy, History of Mathematics and
Theory of Functions. They carried out many innovations in teaching and research. For the first time in 1890, a society called M.A.O. College Mathematics Society was formed with Dr. Ziauddin
Ahmad as its President and Mr. A.M. Kureishy as its Secretary. The society has been continuing its activities and is now known
as Aligarh Mathematical Society.
The Department of Mathematics came into existence on the elevation of M.A.O. College to the status
of a residential University in 1920. Thus the department of Mathematics is amongst the oldest departments of the University.
Dr. Sir Ziauddin Ahmad became the first Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics but soon was appointed as Pro-Vice
Chancellor, and Mr. A.M. Kureishy looked after the department as acting head. In 1931, Professor Andre Weil of France was
inducted in the Department. The appointment of Professor Andre Weil was a significant turning point in the academic growth
of the Department. During his stay of about two years as head of the department, he remodeled the syllabi, set up the Seminar
Library, and established a group of workers with Professor D. D. Kosambi and Professor T. K. Vijayraghavan as its members.
It was unfortunate that Professor Andre Weil took exception to an order of the Vice Chancellor asking to perform election
duty for the student’s union, and resigned.
After the departure of Professor Andre Weil,
Dr. Hans Lasheim, from Berlin, took over charge of the Department, and guided its multifarious activities for three years.
In 1935, Mr. A.M. Kureishy was again appointed Head of the Department. In the same year Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad became an Honorary
Professor in the Department, working simultaneously as Vice Chancellor of the University. Because of his love for the subject,
he took his duties in the Department very seriously and even found time to take a number of lectures both at the undergraduate
and postgraduate levels. During the period 1931-46, the Department took interest in developing studies in Differential Geometry,
Differential Equations and the Theory of Functions of Complex Variables.
After the retirement of Mr. A.M. Kureishy
in 1947, Dr. N.M. Basu took over as Professor and Head of the Department for a period of five years. During his tenure, the
staff position of the Department was strengthened by the appointment of Dr. J.A. Siddiqui, Dr. H.C. Gupta and Professor Raziuddin.
The courses at the postgraduate levels were bifurcated into two groups namely, pure and applied mathematics. Practical work
in Statistics was also introduced. At the same time pure and applied Statistics were introduced at the undergraduate level.
It was in 1953 that Dr. S.M. Shah
was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department, and continued to work in this capacity till 1958 when he left to take
up a teaching assignment in the United States. During his period, some prominent academicians like Professor U.N. Singh, Professor
Q.I. Rehman and Professor M.S. Ramanujan joined the Department. As a result of this, the teaching and research potentials
of the department were substantially augmented. A Diploma Course in Statistics was also introduced in 1957.
Professor Jamil A. Siddiqui took
over as Head of the Department in 1958 and occupied the position for eight years. During this period this period, Dr. D. J.
Dickinson, University of Massachusetts (USA), joined the Department under the Fulbright Bright scheme for one academic
year. The department organized for the first time a summer school in 1965 for teachers in cooperation with the Ford Foundation
with a view to improve the teaching of Mathematics in Colleges. Prof. Siddiqui's outstanding contribution to the Department
was the emphasis on teaching of modern Mathematics which was intiated with great favour by him.
When Professor Siddiqui went abroad in 1966
on long leave, the mantle of leading the Department fell on Professor M.A. Kazim who held the post for about six years. He
not only maintained the traditions of Modern Mathematics in the Department, but also made valuable contributions by developing
specialization in Modern Algebra - in both teaching and research. During his tenure the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
moved to the present two story building. Dr. Surjeet Singh, during this period, joined the Department as Reader before becoming
a Professor at Amritsar.
Dr. Saiyed Izhar Husain joined the Department as Professor and Head in 1972, and brought in great dynamism
and innovations in teaching and research activities. Notable improvements were made both in terms of the physical amenities
and the academic atmosphere in the working of the Department, and a fruitful rapport with the outside mathematics world was
established. His efforts resulted in placing the Department in the forefront of Mathematics departments of the country - so
that the UGC ultimately recognized it as a Department of Special Assistance in September 1983. Professor Husain had been the
Head of the Department for 12 years. He has created a nucleus of researchers in the domain of General Relativity and Differential
Geometry. The Department faced his sad demise in May 1994. The University has instituted a scholarship in his memory for postgraduate
students of Mathematics.
After the introduction of the new system
of appointment of the Chairman in 1984, Professor Sarfaraz Umar became the Chairman for a short period. He was followed by
Professor M. Mohsin (1984-1987), Professor A.H. Siddiqui (1987-1990), Professor Z. U. Ahmad (1990-1993), Professor M.Z. Khan
(1993-1996, 2003-2005), Professor M.A. Quadri (1996-1999), Prof.M.A. Pathan (1999-2002), Prof. S.M.A. Zaidi (2002-2003, 2005-2006)
-all of whom served as Chairman, and under whom the Department continued to make steady progress on all fronts throughout
the years. In August 2006, the present Chairman Prof. H.H. Khan took charge.
The Seminar Library of the Department of Mathematics is our prize possession indeed, and our claim
is that it is the most valuable mathematics library in any University of the country. During the years which span over a century,
the Department has acquired more than 20,000 books on higher mathematics (this does not include books for undergraduate studies
available in Maulana Azad Library - the main library of AMU). The Seminar Library also contains 50 valuable collected works
of eminent mathematicians. Apart from steadily acquiring recent books on advanced mathematics, it also receives more than
150 periodicals through subscription and mutual exchange. This number has gone down at present due to price rise and devaluation
of Indian currency. This valuable collection of books and research journals, along with readily available photocopying facilities,
have made the Seminar Library very popular among teachers of mathematics and researchers from neighbouring universities as
well.
The Department has also been publishing
a research journal known as The Aligarh Bulletin of Mathematics since 1971. This Bulletin regularly carries research articles by mathematicians from India and
abroad. Professor M.A. Kazim was its founding Chief Editor. It is published annually in one volume, and distributed to all
Indian Universities and some foreign institutions on a free exchange basis. In return, the Department gets more than 40 International
Research Journals from various universities.
The Department has an independent building which was built in 1968. Besides office accommodation, the
building has 10 class rooms, 22 faculty chambers (each equipped with PC and internet access), two committee rooms and a seminar
library.
During last some years, many foreign mathematicians
have visited our department, namely, Prof. Taqdir Husain (Canada), Prof. W.H. Ruckle (USA), Prof. R.T. Rockafellar (USA),
Prof. M. Brokate (USA), Prof. F. Moricz (Hungary), Prof. F. Schipp (Hungary), Prof. E. Melkowsky (Germany), Prof. H.Neunzert
(Germany), Prof. S.M. Tariq Rizvi (USA), Prof. (Mrs.) A. Tali (Estonia), Prof. F.F. Bazan (Chile), Prof. R. Lozi, Prof. Bresar
(Slovenia), Prof. J. Vukman (Slovenia), Prof. Arif Kaya (Turkey), Prof. L. Cairini
(Italy), Prof. Murabayashi (Japan), Prof. J. Park (Korea), Prof. T. Kwark (Korea). Prof. Maria Zeltser (Estonia).
Since 1976, the department has been holding various National and International conference in every
2-3 years.
Faculty Members
