Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin, known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (November 11, 1888, in Mecca; † February 22, 1958), was an Indian writer and freedom fighter in India's independence movement. As a leader of the Indian National Congress, he represented the interests of the Urdu-speaking Muslim population. After independence, he served as the Minister of Education. Azad, born as Firuz Bakht into a Persian scholarly family from Herat, was born in Mecca, where his father Maulana Khairuddin had traveled in 1855, dissatisfied with the situation in India.