Ataullah Khan Ozai‐Durrani (1898–2 May 1964) was an Afghan inventor, known for inventing a method for creating instant rice. Ozai-Durrani sold this process to General Foods, which marketed it as Minute Rice: the first quick-cooking convenience white rice product on the US market.[1]
Biography edit
Ataullah Khan Ozai‐Durrani, a relative of the king of Afghanistan, was born in Herat in 1898. He studied petrochemistry in Europe and immigrated to the United States in 1923.[2]
In 1939, after years of home laboratory experiments and studying rice at the New York Public Library, Ozai-Durrani devised a method of preparing quick-cooking rice by cooking grains of rice, then drying them and packaging the dried rice in boxes.[3] H. K. Smith, the manager of the Arkansas Rice Growers Collective, let Ozai-Durrani set up another lab in their growing area. In 1941, Ozai-Durrani walked into the New York City offices of General Foods with a portable stove and kit to demonstrate this rice-cooking method.[4] General Foods bought the product for several million dollars, making Ozia-Durrani instantly wealthy.[5]
Ozai-Durrani married Louisa Ebbs Harrison of Denver, Colorado; the two later divorced.[3]
Ozai-Durrani died on 2 May 1964 in Englewood, Colorado of lung cancer.[3] In his will, he left $30,000 to Louisiana State University to commission "an encyclopedic text" about rice, and over $500,000 to "Harvard University or such non-profit institution" for research and biographies of 19th-century Iranian poets Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghabil and Mir Taqui Mir, as well as translation of their work into English.[6] Ozai-Durrani wrote in his will that the bequest was in memory of scholar and ambassador Syud Hossain. The New Yorker wrote of the bequest: "We take note here of the late Mr. Ozai-Durrani's handsome bequest, and feel the richer for it."[7] Harvard would use the money to appoint Annemarie Schimmel as Professor of Indo-Muslim Studies and to commission two books by Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam: Three Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan (1968) and Ghalib 1797–1869: Life and Letters (1969).[5]
References edit
- ^ Handbook on Rice Cultivation and Processing. NIIR Project Consultancy Services. October 2007. ISBN 9788190568524. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Baden, John K. "Through Disconnection and Revival: Afghan American Relations With Afghanistan, 1890–2016". ohiolink.edu. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b c "A. K. Ozai-Durrani, Made 'Minute Rice'". The New York Times. 5 May 1964. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Rolfes, Hans G. (2007). General Foods: America's Premier Food Company. Hudson House. ISBN 9781587768705. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b Ozai-Durrani, Ataullah K. Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Lelyveld, Joseph (19 June 1964). "Inventor Leaves Half Million for Translation of 2 Persian Poets". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Arlen, Michael J. (3 July 1964). "Comment". The New Yorker. Retrieved 27 February 2023.