Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in 

Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); Abdelwahab Bouh-

diba,  Sexuality in Islam. Translated by Alan Sheridan 

(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Noel J. 

Couslon, “Regulation of Sexual Behavior under Tradi-

tional Islamic Law.” In Society and the Sexes in Medieval 

Islam, edited by Afaf Lufti al-Sayyid-Marsot (Malibu, 

Calif.: Undena, 1979).

Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-

 

(1838–1897)  

leading advocate for Islamic revivalism and Muslim 

solidarity against European imperialism in the  

19th century

Some uncertainty surrounds the origins of Muslim 

writer, philosopher, and political activist Jamal 

al-Din al-Afghani, whose name indicates he was 

from a

Fghanistan

 but whose real homeland most 

scholars identify as Persia, or modern-day i

ran

.

Born into a Shii family of sayyids (descendants of 

m

Uhammad

), al-Afghani spent his life traveling and 

teaching in i

ndia

, the Middle East, and Europe. 

His main objective was to inspire and organize 

a pan-Islamic movement to strengthen Muslims’ 

resistance to the expansion of European, specifi-

cally British, power around the world. Among his 

many prominent disciples were m

Uhammad

 a

bdUh

(d. 1905), with whom he published a newspaper 

(al-Urwa al-Wuthqa, strongest link) in 1884, and 

Saad Zaghloul (d. 1927), who later led Egypt’s 

independence movement. His major work was a 

treatise on the role of reason in understanding 

divine revelation titled al-Radd ala al-Dahiriyyin

(Reply to the materialists). Many consider him the 

father of Muslim nationalism.

Al-Afghani’s early education in Iran was in 

theology

 and Islamic 

philosophy

, particularly that 

of a

bU

 a

li

 

al

-h

Ussein

 i

bn

 s

ina

 (Latin: Avicenna, d. 

1037)). As a youth, he studied modern sciences 

and 

mathematics

 in India, where he witnessed 

firsthand the detrimental political and social 

effects of British imperialism. This contributed to 

his view that Muslims needed to band together 

to defend themselves. Muslim solidarity and a 

revitalized Islam, one that integrated the best of 

technology and science with traditional Islamic 

values, were essential if Muslims were to regain 

control of their lands. He enthusiastically pro-

moted a role for rational interpretation (

ijtihad

) in 

understanding Islam, a position he debated with 

European intellectuals, such as Ernest Renan (d. 

1892), and Muslim clerics alike.

Al-Afghani’s career took him to many coun-

tries and into the service of many Muslim gov-

ernments, including the Ottoman sultan Abd 

al-Hamid (r. 1806–1909) and Persia’s Shah Nasir 

al-Din (r. 1848–96). However, this did not keep 

him from directing his criticisms at his patrons, 

whom he saw as extensions or at least facilita-

tors of European influence in the Middle East. 

He advocated constitutionalism as a way to check 

autocratic power, criticized the t

anzimat

 reforms 

in Turkey, and initiated the popular agitation that 

led to the Tobacco Protests of 1891–92 against 

British concessions in Persia. In 1896, Nasir 

al-Din was assassinated by one of al-Afghani’s 

followers, leaving the latter to live out his days 

K  14