Jamal-al-Din Afghani

Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Safdar al-Husayn (1838Britannica Encyclopædia, Online Edition 2007 - [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368411 link] ] -1897) (PerB|سید محمد بن صفدر حسینی), mostly known as Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn al-Afghānī, (PerB|سید جمال الدین الافغاني) or Jamāl-al-dīn Asadābādī (PerB|جمال الدین اسدآبادی), was a political activist and Islamic nationalist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. One of the founders of Islamic modernism, [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Afghani.html Jamal al-Din al-Afghani] Jewish Virtual Library] and an advocate of pan-Islamic unity, [Ludwig W. Adamec, "Historical Dictionary of Islam" (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001), p. 32] he has been described as "less interested in theology than he was in organizing a Muslim response to Western pressure." [Vali Nasr, "The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future" (New York: Norton, 2006), p. 103.]

Early life

Although some older sources claim that al-Afghani was born in 1838 in Asadabad, a district of Kunar Province in Afghanistan, ["From Reform to Revolution", Louay Safi, Intellectual Discourse 1995, Vol. 3, No. 1 [http://lsinsight.org/articles/1998_Before/Reform.htm LINK] ] [Historia, "Le vent de la révolte souffle au Caire", Baudouin Eschapasse, [http://www.historia.presse.fr/data/thematique/105/10502401.html LINK] ] overwhelming documentation (especially a collection of papers left in Iran upon his expulsion in 1891) now suggests he was born and spent his childhood in Iran and was brought up as a Shia Muslim.N.R. Keddie, "Afghāni, Jamāl al-dīn", Encyclopædia Iranica, [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v1f5/v1f5a038.html Online Edition 2005-2007] ] [N. R. Keddie, "Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography", Berkeley, 1972] Britannica Encyclopædia, Online Edition 2007 - [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368411 link] ]

According to the best evidence, he was educated first at home, then taken by his father for further education to Qazvin, to Tehran, and finally, while he was still a youth, to the Shi'ite shrine cities in Iraq. It is thought that followers of Shia revivalist Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i had an influence on Al-Afghani. [Edward Mortimer, "Faith and Power", Vintage, (1982)p.110]

It is thought Al-Afghani claimed to be an Afghan in order to present himself as a Sunni Muslim - the sect adhered to by most Muslims and most Muslim rulers - and to escape oppression by the Iranian government, or to be associated with the larger branch of Islam so "reach a wider audience". [Edward Mortimer, "Faith and Power", Vintage, (1982)p.110]

Political activism

In 1857, Jamaluddin Afghani spent a year in Delhi and after performing the pilgrimage of Hajj in Mecca, he returned to Afghanistan in 1858. He became a counselor to the King Dost Mohammad Khan and later to Mohammad Azam. In 1869, the throne of Kabul was occupied by Sher Ali Khan, and al-Afghani was forced to leave the country. He decided to travel to Istanbul, although he journeyed through Cairo on his way there. He stayed in Cairo long enough to meet a young student who would become a devoted disciple, Muhammad 'Abduh [Albert Hourani, "Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age" (Cambridge: Cambride UP, 1983), pp. 131-2] .

In 1871, al-Afghani moved to Egypt and began preaching his ideas of political reform. His ideas were considered radical, and he was exiled in 1879. He then traveled to different European and non-European cities: Istanbul, London, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Munich .

In 1884, al-Afghani began publishing an Arabic newspaper in Paris entitled al-Urwah al-Wuthqa ("The Indissoluble Link"Britannica Encyclopædia, Online Edition 2007 - [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368411 link] ] ) along with Muhammad Abduh. The newspaper called for a return to the original principles and ideals of Islam, and for greater unity among Islamic peoples. This, al-Afghani argued, would allow the Islamic community to regain its former strength against European powers.

Al-Afghani was invited by Shah Nasser al-Din to come to Iran and advise on affairs of government, but fell from favor quite quickly and had to take sanctuary in a shrine near Tehran. After seven months of preaching to admirers from the shrine, he was arrested in 1891, transported to the border with Ottoman Mesopotamia, and evicted from Iran. Although al-Afghani quarrelled with most of his patrons, it is said he "reserved his strongest hatred for the shah," whom he accused of weakening Islam by granting concessions to Europeans and squandering the money earned thereby. His agitation against the Shah is thought to have been one of the "fountainheads" of the successful 1891 protest against the granting a tobacco monopoly to a British company, and the later 1905 Constitutional Revolution. [Roy Mottahedeh, "The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran" (Oxford: One World, 2000), pp. 183-4]

Political and religious views

Although called a liberal by a contemporary English admirer, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, [ Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, "Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt" (London: Unwin, 1907), p. 100.] Afghani did not advocate constitutional government. In the volumes of the newspaper he published in Paris, “there is no word in the paper’s theoretical articles favoring political democracy or parliamentarianism,” according to his biographer. Afghani simply envisioned “the overthrow of individual rulers who were lax or subservient to foreigners, and their replacement by strong and patriotic men.” [Nikki R. Keddie, "Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 225-26.]

According to another source Afghani was greatly disappointed by the failure of the Indian Mutiny and came to three principal conclusions from it:

*that European imperialism, having conquered India, now threatened the Middle East
*that Asia, including the Middle East, could prevent the onslaught of Western powers only by immediately adopting the modern technology of the West
*and that Islam, despite its traditionalism, was an effective creed for mobilizing the public against the imperialists. [Ervand Abrahamian, "Iran Between Two Revolutions" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 62-3]

Afghani, above all else, called for unity amongst all Muslims. However, he did not believe that all Muslims ought to unify under one ruler, or Caliph. Rather, cooperation amongst Muslims was his answer to the weakness that had allowed Muslims to be colonized by the Europeans (namely Britain, Russia, and France). He believed that, in fact, Islam (and its revealed law) was compatible with rationality and, thus, Muslims could become politically unified whilst still maintaining their faith based on a religious social morality. These beliefs had a profound effect on Muhammad Abduh, who went on to expand on the notion of using rationality in the human relations aspect of Islam ("mu'amalat") [Albert Hourani, "Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age" (Cambridge: Cambride UP, 1983), pp. 104-125] .

Among the reasons why Al-Afghani is thought to have had a less than deep religious faith was his lack of interest in finding theologically common ground between Shia and Sunni, [Nasr, "The Shia Revival", p.103] and his failure to marry. He is said to have "picked up female companionship when he wanted it without any show of religious scruples." [Mottahedeh, "The Mantle of the Prophet", p. 184] .

Death and legacy

He died on March 9, 1897 in Istanbul and was buried there. In late 1944, due to the request of Afghan government, his remains were taken to Afghanistan and laid in Kabul inside the Kabul University, a mausoleum was erected for him.

References

Further reading

* [http://www.imamreza.net/eng/imamreza.php?id=6991 Seyyed Jamaluddin Asadabadi, the Founder of the Pan-Islamic Front]
* [http://www.afghanan.net/afghanistan/afghani/ Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani's Biography] .
*Bashiri, Iraj, [http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Afghani/Afghani.html Bashiri Working Papers on Central Asia and Iran] , 2000.
*cite book|author=Black, Antony|title=The History of Islamic Political Thought|location=New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|id=ISBN 0-415-93243-2
*cite book|author=Cleveland, William|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|location=Boulder, CO|publisher=Westview Press|year=2004|id=ISBN 0-8133-4048-9
*"Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 5 Oct. 2005.
*Keddie, Nikki Ragozin. "Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani: A Political biography". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
*cite book|author=Watt, William Montgomery|title=Islamic Philosophy and Theology|location=Edinburgh|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=1985|id=ISBN 0-7486-0749-8
* Mehrdad Kia, "Pan-Islamism in Late Nineteenth-Century Iran", Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 30-52 (1996).