Khwaja Abdul Hamied

Khwaja Abdul Hamied FCS, FRIC (31 October 1898 – 23 June 1972) was an Indian industrial and pharmaceutical chemist who founded Cipla, India's oldest pharmaceutical company in 1935. His son, Yusuf Hamied headed the company after him for the next 52 years. Khwaja Abdul Hamied was active in the Indian independence movement and a champion of composite nationalism. Early life and background Hamied was born in Aligarh, to Khwaja Abdul Ali, an advocate, and Masood Jahan Begum. Through his father, he was descended from the Sufi saint Khwaja Ahrar of iran (Uzbekistan), while on his mother's side, he was descended from Shah Shuja, the last Durrani king of Afghanistan. His paternal great-uncle was the noted reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan he was also the nephew of Khwaja Muhammad Yusuf and a younger brother to Abdul Majeed Khwaja Education After matriculating from Islamia High School, Etawah, distinguishing himself in mathematics, Hamied completed his Intermediate in Science from Agra College in 1917. Having decided to become a chemist, he then spent a year at a Madras trade school studying leather technology before enrolling at Muir Central College in Allahabad, from which he completed his B.Sc. in chemistry in 1920. While at the college, he became a favourite student of Nil Ratan Dhar, a distinguished inorganic chemist under whom he studied for a master's degree.