ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED (I781— 1831), a Muslim reformer, was horn at Pholah near Delhi. In co-operation with Syed Ahmed he attempted to free Indian Mohammedanism from the influence of the native early Indian faiths. The two men travelled extensively for many years and visited Mecca. In the Wahhabite movement they found much that was akin to their own views, and on returning to India preached the new doctrine of a pure Islam. The official Moham• medan leaders objected, and the dispute led to the reformers being interdicted by the British government in 1827. The party
then moved to Punjab where they made Peshawar the capital of the theocratic community which they wished to establish (1829). Ismail Hadji fell in battle against the Sikhs amid the Pakhli mountains (1831). Some of his adherents are still found in the mountains of the north-west frontier.
Ismail's book Taqouaiyat el Iman was published in Hindustani and translated in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xiii. 1852.