Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Samuel Adrian M. Adshead, Cen-

tral Asia in World History (New York: St. Martin’s 

Press, 1993); Beatrice Forbes Manz, The Rise and Rule 

of Tamerlane, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civiliza-

tion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); 

Justiin Marozzi, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of 

the World (London: HarperCollins, 2004).

Tanzeem-e Islami

 

(Tanzim-i Islami; Urdu: 

The Islamic Group)

Tanzeem-e Islami is a Pakistani Islamic revitaliza-

tion movement founded in 1975 by Israr Ahmad 

(b. 1932). He was a teenager in the years follow-

ing World War II when the partition of p

akistan

from i

ndia

 took effect. He attended King Edward 

Medical College in Lahore and during the years 

leading to his graduation in 1954 he associated 

with the J

amaat

-

i

 i

slami

, the Islamic renewal orga-

nization founded by a

bU

 

al

-a

la

 m

aWdUdi

 (1903–

79). During these years he not only absorbed 

Mawdudi’s thought, but he also became familiar 

with the work of m

Uhammad

 i

qbal

 (1877–1938), 

who had in 1930 initially proposed the establish-

ment of Pakistan as a Muslim state separate from 

Hindu India.

Following his graduation, Ahmad worked 

with the Jamaat-i Islami, which sought to build 

a revitalized Islam through influencing students 

and social elites. However, in 1957, following 

Mawdudi’s decision to enter fully into electoral 

politics, Ahmad withdrew. While launching a 

career as a physician, he also became an inde-

pendent religious teacher and pursued advanced 

work in Islamic studies, completed in 1965 at the 

University of Karachi.

In 1967 Ahmad authored “Islamic Renais-

sance: The Real Task Ahead,” a tract in which he 

articulated his basic notion that revitalizing Islam 

should be pursued by instilling the true 

Faith

 and 

certitude in individual Muslims, especially the 

intelligentsia, which could be accomplished by 

propagating Muslim teachings combining con-

temporary language and the best scholarship. 

One problem that needed to be addressed was the 

seeming dichotomy between modern 

science

 and 

Islam. Ahmad abandoned his medical practice in 

K  660