Humayun Azad
Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist. (1947–2004)

Humayun Azad (Bengali: হুমায়ুন আজাদ, pronounced [humai̯un ad͡ʒad̪] ; 28 April 1947 – 12 August 2004) was a Bangladeshi poet, novelist, short-story writer, critic, linguist, columnist and professor of Dhaka University. He wrote more than 70 titles. He was awarded the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1986 for his contributions to Bengali linguistics. In 2012, the government of Bangladesh honored him with Ekushey Padak posthumously for his contributions to Bengali literature.
Early life and education
Azad was born as Humayun Kabir on 28 April 1947 in Rarhikhal village in Bikrampur which village is now under the Sreenagar sub-district of Munshiganj district. Notable scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose was born in the same village. He passed the secondary examination from Sir Jagadish Chandra Basu Institute in 1962 and higher secondary examination from Dhaka College in 1964. He earned BA and MA degrees in Bengali language and literature from the University of Dhaka in 1967 and 1968 respectively. He obtained his PhD in linguistics submitting his thesis titled "Pronominalization in Bengali" from the University of Edinburgh in 1976. Azad changed his surname from Kabir to Azad on 28 September 1988 by the magistrate of Narayanganj District.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Humayun Azad” is bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist. (1947–2004). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Humayun, Azad and Bangladeshi, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist. (1947–2004)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3143161. VIAF identifies the subject as 118156608. The Library of Congress control number is n83133311. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947, 2004, 1986 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Humayun Azad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.