Encyclopedia of Islam

autobiography

  

75  J

---

regarded as a landmark in the history of modern 

Arabic literature. Another impact of modernity 

has been the publication of women’s autobi-

ographies, including those of feminists such 

as  h

Uda

 

al

-s

haaraWi

  (1879–1947) and F

atima

m

ernissi

 (b. 1940) as well as Islamic activists 

such as z

aynab

 

al

-g

hazali

 (d. 2005). For many, 

the  Autobiography of Malcolm X (first published 

in 1964), which recounts the author’s journey 

from a life of street crime to leadership in the 

African-American Muslim community, is the 

most important work of its kind to come from 

the North American context.

See also  a

rabic

 

langUage

 

and

 

literatUre

; 

biography

;  m

alcolm

 X; p

ersian

 

langUage

 

and

literatUre

; t

Urkish

 

langUage

 

and

 

literatUre

.

Further reading: Taha Husayn, An Egyptian Childhood,

trans. E. H. Paxton (London: Heineman, 1981); Fatima 

Mernissi,  Dreams of Trespass: Tales of Harem Girlhood

(Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1994); Dwight F. 

Reynolds, ed., Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the 

Arabic Literary Tradition (Berkeley: University of Cali-

fornia Press, 2001).

Averroës

  See i

bn

 r

ushd

, a

bu

 w

alid

 m

uhammad

ibn

 a

hmad

.

Avicenna

  See i

bn

 s

ina

, a

bu

 a

li

 

al

-h

usayn

.

Awami League

The Awami (People’s) League is one of the two 

most powerful political parties in b

angladesh

,

together with its rival, the Bangladesh National 

Party (BNP). It is an important example of the 

secular currents in modern Muslim politics. The 

league was founded in 1949 by Husayn Shaheed 

Suhrawardy (1892–1963) and other members 

of the Bengali branch of the a

ll

-i

ndia

  m

Uslim

l

eagUe

 in what was then called East Bengal (after 

1955 it was called East Pakistan), a province of 

p

akistan

 created as a result of the partition of 

i

ndia

 in 1947. Earlier, Suhrawardy and his col-

leagues had been active in the Indian nationalist 

movement against British colonial rule. Created 

after partition, the East Pakistan Awami Mus-

lim League (later renamed the Awami League) 

gave voice to Bengali Muslims opposed to West 

Pakistan’s domination of the new country. Bengali 

nationalists wanted greater self-rule in a loosely 

knit federation, inclusion of Hindus and Sikhs 

in the national polity, and recognition of Bangla, 

their national language, as an official state lan-

guage. The West Pakistani leadership, however, 

wanted to preserve its privileged position, retain 

Pakistan’s distinct Muslim identity, and keep Urdu 

as its only official language.

Suhrawardy was eclipsed in the 1960s by the 

charismatic Sheikh Mujibur (Mujib) Rahman 

(1920–75), who expanded the Awami League’s 

appeal to the Bengali masses with his “Six Point 

Program” for more equality in Pakistani affairs. 

Advocating a secular parliamentary democracy, 

the Awami League won a landslide victory in the 

1970 national elections. Its triumph was short-

lived, however, because the Pakistani military 

intervened in 1971 to declare martial law, and it 

imprisoned Mujib for treason, which precipitated 

a war for independence from Pakistan. With the 

assistance of Indian troops, East Pakistan thus 

became Bangladesh in 1971, and Mujib, released 

from prison, became its first prime minister. 

The new government’s constitution was based 

on “four pillars” advocated by Mujib and the 

Awami League: democracy, socialism, secular-

ism, and nationalism. The league’s popularity 

soon declined, however, in the face of a famine 

in 1974 and political and economic failures that 

resulted in a series of coups after Mujib’s death 

in 1975. It regained its parliamentary majority in 

the 1996 elections, and Mujib’s daughter, Shaikh 

Hasina Wajid, became Bangladesh’s prime min-

ister (1996–2001). The league remains strongly 

secular in outlook. As one observer has noted, 

the Awami League upholds the idea that “Bangla-

K  76  

Averroës

---

deshis are Bengalis who happen to be Muslims,” 

while its rival, the BNP (created in 1978), consid-

ers “Bangladeshis to be Muslims who happen to 

be Bengalis” (Baxter, p. xiii).

See also 

democracy

; J

innah

,  m

Uhammad

  a

li

; 

h

indUism

 

and

 i

slam

; 

secUlarism

.