Academics and students this morning paid their tribute to eminent scholar, fiction writer, essayist and educationist Emeritus Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam at the Aparajeyo Bangla in Dhaka University. Photo : Collected

DHAKA, Oct 1, 2025 (BSS) – Academics and students this morning paid their tribute to eminent scholar, fiction writer, essayist and educationist Emeritus Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam at the Aparajeyo Bangla in Dhaka University.
 
The body of Professor Islam was brought to Aparajeyo Bangla at 10:30 am and later taken to the Central Shaheed Minar for people from all walks of life to pay homage.
 
Faculty members and students, including Dean of the Faculty of Arts Professor Siddiqur Rahman Khan, Chairman of the Department of English Professor Tazin Aziz Chowdhury, members of the English Alumni Association, and teachers from the music and other departments, offered floral tributes to Professor Islam.
 
His first Namaz-e-Janaza will be held after Zuhr prayers at the Dhaka University Central Mosque. Later, his body will be taken to Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard where he will be laid to eternal rest following his second Namaj-e-Janaza.
 
Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam passed away yesterday at 5:00 pm while undergoing treatment at Labaid Hospital in the capital.
 
Islam was born on Jan 18, 1951, in Sylhet to Syed Amirul Islam and Rabeya Khatun. He completed his secondary education at Sylhet Government Pilot High School in 1966 and later studied at MC College in Sylhet.
 
He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Dhaka University, and later earned a PhD from Queen’s University, Canada, on the Irish poet WB Yeats.
 
Professionally, he served as a professor in the Department of English at Dhaka University and later joined the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) after retirement. He retired as a professor from the English department and was appointed a professor emeritus in 2023.
 
Professor Islam authored essays, short stories, and novels, pioneering a new stream in Bangla fiction where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blurred, bringing magic realism into everyday events.
 
Islam was honoured with numerous accolades, including the Ekushey Padak in 2018 and the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1996, in recognition of his contribution to literature.