An essay by Khorshed Mukul assesses “Bangali Musalmaner Shatrumitra,” an anthology of Al Mahmud’s essays edited by Muhim Mahfuz, as an important intellectual document of Bengali Muslim self-identification and cultural resistance. Published on July 25, 2026, the article notes the collection’s subtitle, “Selected Essays to Confront Cultural Autocracy,” and describes it as evidence of an intellectual struggle extending across several decades.

The writer says Al Mahmud wrote for four decades against cultural autocracy, intellectual monopolisation, and tendencies to marginalise the history and heritage of the Bengali Muslim majority. The article links renewed attention to his work with the July 2024 mass uprising, when several of his poems were recited and used in wall writing.

The volume contains 78 essays, prioritising writings in which Al Mahmud directly addressed Bangladesh, Bengali Muslims, culture, literature, history and political rights. The essay characterises his prose as poetic, sharp and resolute, bringing together history, culture, literature and contemporary issues. It argues that readers need not agree with all his views, but that reading him is important for understanding post-independence Bangladesh’s cultural debates and the history of identity formation.