Sirajul Islam is the chairman of the Board of Editors of Banglapedia

Banglapedia

Banglapedia, or the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bangla and English. The print version comprises ten 500-page volumes...

, the national encyclopedia

Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....

 of Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, and the editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh

Asiatic Society of Bangladesh

The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh was established as the Asiatic Society of Pakistan in Dhaka in 1952. It was renamed as the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in 1972. Ahmed Hasan Dani, a noted historian and archaeologist of Pakistan played an important role in founding this society. He was assisted by...

.

Career

A professor of history at the University of Dhaka

University of Dhaka

The University of Dhaka is the oldest university in Bangladesh. It is a multi-disciplinary research university and is among the top universities in the region. Established on July 21, 1921, as per the Government of India Act, 1920, it was modelled on the Universities in England and soon gained...

, the oldest and largest university in Bangladesh, Islam gave up his day job five years before the formal date of retirement, to make time for Banglapedia, in 2000.

A corresponding fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

, Islam was a Senior Commonwealth Staff Fellow at the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 (1978–79), a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Urbana Champaigne

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 (1990–91), and a British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 Visiting Professor (2004).

Work

In 2002, 10 volumes of Banglapedia, published by Asiatic Society, came out in his editorship. In 1991, 3 volumes of the History of Bangladesh (political, economic and socio-cultural), published by Asiatic Society, came out in his editorship. For the Society, he is working on the Children’s Banglapedia and the Cultural Survey of Bangladesh. He also is in charge of the National Online Biography project of the Society and the Banglapedia Trust.

While at his 34 year long stint at the University, he wrote major seminal works like Permanent Settlement in Bengal (1978), The Bengal Land Tenure (1990) and the Rural History of Bangladesh (1990). He also edited the 4 volume Bangladesh District Record Survey.

External links

• Sirajul Islam's entries in Banglapedia Boi-Mela. Retrieved: 2007-07-23
• Publications of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved: 2007-07-24