Mr. Ameer Ali died suddenly last week in this country
where he had made his home continuously for over twenty years. He was born in Oudh where his family, who claimed descent from Mahomet, had settled after living for some generations in Persia. He was educated at Hooghly College, came to England as a young man and was called to the Bar. He had a very successful legal career in India and became the first Mahometan Judge of the Bengal High Court. In 1904 he returned to England and five years later became the first Indian Privy Councillor and a member of the Judicial Committee on which his knowledge of India and Indian Law were often of high value. He will also be remembered long, both here and in India, by his writings. They won for him the reputation of being the most important interpreter of Islam to Europe, as he had been to the Government of India in earlier days. In later years Indian Moslems were inclined to think him too much occidentalized to represent them fairly. During the War and the years of treaty-making he was ardently loyal to the Allied cause until the plight of Turkey evoked his sympathy with his co-religionists. A letter upon the preservation of big game appeared from him in the Times the day after his death. In it he compared Indian methods with those in force in " our African colonies " ; a tiny point, but a pleasant indication of his outlook.
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