In 1923, while he [Zakir Hussein] was taking a vacation with another Indian student, I met him at Munich. In his early twenties he already had a beard, and no one could have associated him with youth. With this austere young man, so obviously mature, was another young student, Mujeeb by name. He was utterly different from Zakir Hussein, with a delicate physique, refined features, thoughtful, tortured eyes. A temperament of artistic nature was written all over him. But outwardly he had the same quiet way, the same determined look as his companion. These were the first young Indians to make me wonder whether the talkative, versatile Indian students I had hitherto met, with their emphatic and passionate reactions, were really typical; certainly they were as different from these taciturn young men as Nordics and Latins.

Zakir Hussein returned to India in 1926, a Doctor of Economics of Berlin University; and he became Principal of the Jamia. With his usual discrimination and persuasiveness, he selected suitable colleagues to create the new centre, and among them Mujeeb.

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