'World's oldest man' dead at 138
An Indian reported to be the world's oldest man has died in the western city of Jaipur, his family said. Habib Miyan, who died Monday, claimed to be 138 years old and was listed as the country's oldest man in India's Limca Book of Records. But without a birth certificate giving formal proof of his age, Habib Miyan, who played clarinet in a maharaja's band before retiring 70 years ago, could not prove his longevity. However, his pension book showed his birth date as May 20, 1879 — which would make him 129. The oldest living person according to the Guinness World Records is 115-year-old Edna Parker, who lives in an Indiana nursing home. Japanese woman Yone Minagawa died last year at 114. Thousands of people thronged Habib Miyan's funeral on Tuesday in Jaipur, 340km from Jodhpur, following a bout of fever and dysentery, his niece Munni told AFP. "If you treat your body well, the body will treat you well," Habib Miyan would tell anyone who asked him the secret of his long life, another relative Mehmood Khan, told the Calcutta Telegraph. Habib Miyan made international headlines in 2004 when he fulfilled a long-cherished ambition of visiting the Muslim holy city of Mecca, becoming one of the oldest people to complete the pilgrimage. Habib Miyan, whose wife died around 70 years ago, lived in a Muslim quarter of Jaipur, a popular tourist hub in the western state of Rajasthan. He retired in 1938 from the court of then Jaipur king, Raja Man Singh, where he played clarinet in the royal orchestra.
He had been blind for more than half a century and his mobility was limited in recent years but he underwent hip replacement surgery last year, according to media reports. He spent most of his time in his house, praying and telling stories to his vast extended family of 140 people. On Monday, Habib Miyan called Rajesh Nagpal, a bank clerk who had made public his longevity, over to the house where generations of his family had lived and told him: "I am going to go now," the Telegraph reported
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