Born toward the end of Mughal rule in India , Seyyed Ameer Ali was educated at the Muhsiniyya ( “Hooghly” ) College , near Calcutta . He was in England in 1869-73 , being called to the Bar in 1873 , and settled there permanently with his English wife ( Isabelle Ida Konstam ) on retirement from the Bengal High Court in 1904 .

He belongs to that generation of Indian Muslims who found themselves at the receiving end of the tide and tried to defend their faith at a time when such a defense could only be an apology . His activities were significant in many fields: as a professor of Islamic Law , at the Bar , on the Bench , in social service , government administration , politics , and as a writer . In 1883 he became one of the three Indian members ( and the only Muslim ) on the Viceroy's Council , and in 1909 he was appointed the first Indian member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London . On the political front he founded in 1877 a “National Mahommedan [sic] Association" , which was a nation-wide organization with 34 branches from Madras to Karachi; its program was primarily “to promote good feeling and fellowship between the Indian races and creeds , at the same time to protect and safeguard Mahommedan ( sic ) interests and help their political training” . After moving to England he was instrumental in setting up the London branch of the Muslim League; his loyalty to and real affection for Britain led him , however , to resign in 1913 when the League joined with the Indian National Congress in talk of “Home Rule” . He was involved in negotiations in London over the projects for political reforms in India . After the First World War he came into prominence as London champion of the Khilafat movement .

In an environment which was hostile to Islam , Ameer Ali attempted to defend his faith at various levels . He wrote a work on the life of the Prophet of Islam which was published in London ( 1873 ) and which became the basis of a developing work which he subsequently kept revising and republishing throughout his life; this was eventually published as The Spirit of Islam ( editions in 1891 , 1922 , 1953 ) . This was a liberal and modernist interpretation of Islam and was favorably received in the West as well in India . It has also been translated into Turkish .

His other major book ( apart from legal works ) , A Short History of the Saracens ( London 1899; 10th repr . ( revised ) 1951; also in Urdu trans . ) , was also an apologetic narration of Muslim history . And like such works of that time , he sought to show that Islam was a rational religion . He repeats the story of “achievements of Muslim scientists” and attempts along with the Orientalists’ formulation of the “decay of science” with an emphatic reference to the alleged contribution of al-Ghazali in the decline of science . However , because his works were published at a time when very little was known about Islam that was positive , they created a sense of hope for the Muslim youth and provided a much needed feeling of historical context in the colonized polity . There is very little one can ascertain by way of Ameer Ali’s personal views about the relationship between Islam and science other than the oft-repeated theme of importance of knowledge in Islam , which includes scientific knowledge as well .