Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al- (Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani) (Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn) (Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi) (1838 - March 9, 1897). Muslim reformer, apologist, and anti-colonialist who is known as the “Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement.”
Afghani was born near Hamadan and educated in Iran and the Shi‘ite shrine cities of Ottoman Iraq. Educated in rationalist philosophy, taught more in Iran than elsewhere in the Muslim world, Afghani was also influenced by the philosophically oriented and innovative Shaikhi school of Shi‘ism. Around 1857, he went to India, where he seems to have acquired his lifelong hatred of British imperialism. After a trip, probably via Mecca and Iraq, he went to Afghanistan and entered the counsels of the Afghan emir, advising him to fight the British. When his patron was defeated by Amir Shir Ali, the latter expelled Afghani.
Afghani went briefly to India and Cairo, and then to Istanbul, where he became a friend of the head of the Dar al-Fonun, a new university. In 1870, Afghani gave a lecture at the university. He compared philosophy to prophecy and implied that prophecy was a craft, thus giving the Ottoman ulama (religious scholars), already hostile to the secular university, an excuse to attack the university and bring on Afghani’s expulsion.
Afghani stayed then in Cairo from 1871 to 1879. There he did his most fruitful work. He was given a stipend by the Egyptian government to teach young Egyptians. Among his disciples was the later great Muslim reformer Muhammad Abduh. From 1875 onwards, Afghani entered politics by (1) leading an Arab Masonic lodge, which he tried to use to achieve the abdication of Isma‘il in favor of his son Tawfiq, (2) promoting the formation of political newspapers by his disciples, and (3) giving effective mass orations, directed especially against Westerners in Egypt. When Tawfiq took power with Franco-British aid in 1879 and Afghani continued to attack the British, he was exiled to India in August 1879.
In India, Afghani went to the Muslim principality of Hyderabad, where he published several Persian articles and his one treatise, known as the Refutation of the Materialists, which was aimed mainly at the pro-British Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and his school. After detention by the British in Calcutta, Afghani left for Paris, stopping in London. In London and Paris, Afghani wrote articles against the British occupation of Egypt, and also wrote the irreligious French “Answer to Renan,”a notable defense of Islam against Ernest Renan. He got Abduh to join him in Paris, where they published the reformist and anti-British paper, Al-urwa al-wuthqa, in 1884. It was at this time that Afghani first expressed the pan-Islamic views most often associated with him. Until then, he had spoken rather in terms of regional nationalisms.
In 1886, Afghani sailed to the Iranian port of Bushehr, where his books and papers had been sent from Egypt. He planned to go to Russia, where the Slavophile editor Mikhail Katkov had invited him, but the Iranian minister of press invited him to Tehran. Jamal al-Din stayed with the wealthy Amin al-Zarb. His anti-foreign talk evidently disturbed the shah, who asked Amin al-Zarb to take Afghani with him to Russia, which he did. There he made futile attempts to convince Russia to fight Britain. Afghani overtook the shah’s party in Munich in 1889, and after a brief return to Russia he came back to Iran, where the prime minister refused to see him. Afghani then began to encourage secret organization and leaflets against the government, and forestalled expulsion by taking sanctuary at a shrine. In January 1891, he was expelled from Iran after a leaflet attacked the government for its concessions (especially the tobacco concession) to foreigners. When the Qajar Shah (Nasir al-Din) had Afghani forcibly removed from a place near Tehran which had been regarded as an inviolable sanctuary (in Persian, bast) Afghani developed feelings of hatred and a desire for vengeance towards the shah.
Afghani went to Iraq, and when the Tobacco Rebellion broke out in Iran, a mujtahid expelled from Shiraz visited Afghani, who wrote a letter against the shah and the tobacco concession to the leading mujtahid, Mirza Hasan Shirazi, who was important in the concession’s cancellation.
Frequently opposed by the ulama (the Muslim clergy) and suspected as dissident by the temporal powers, Afghani was often on the run. In 1891 and 1892, Afghani spent months speaking and writing in England with Malkom Khan. In 1892, Afghani was invited to be the guest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid in Istanbul. In Istanbul, Afghani was employed by Sultan Abdulhamid (‘Abd al-Hamid II) to promulgate pan-Islamic ideals. There he worked with a group of Iranians and Shi‘ites to get Shi‘ites to recognize Abdulhamid’s claim to be caliph of all Muslims.
In 1896, Afghani’s disciple, Mirza Riza Kirmani, visited Afghani. Afghani inspired Mirza to kill Nasir al-Din Shah on May 1, 1896. The friendship between Afghani and the Sultan subsequently cooled, essentially because of Afghani’s complicity in the assassination of the Persian ruler. Indeed, Afghani was placed under house arrest by the Sultan. Iran’s futile efforts to extradite Afghani ended with Afghani’s death in 1897.
Afghani died on March 9, 1897 in Istanbul and was buried there. However, in late 1944, at the request of the Afghan government, his remains were taken to Afghanistan and laid to rest in Kabul inside the Kabul University where a mausoleum was erected for him.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was most effective as a pamphleteer, journalist, orator, and revolutionary activist. As a Muslim modernist and political propagandist, he advocated unity of the Islamic world and selective borrowing from the West for the purpose of stemming the tide of Western imperialism. He was the adviser of Muslim rulers in many parts of the Islamic world and a political activist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman empire. With him, began the reform movement which gave rise to the Salafiyya and, later on, to the Muslim Brothers.
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. Instead, 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).
Afghani’s development of the philosophical bases for Islamic modernism was left to his most illustrious pupil from the Cairo period, Muhammad ‘Abduh. However, in Afghanistan, Afghans revere his memory and believe him to be a descendant of a family of Sayyids from Asadabad in Kunar Province of Afghanistan, even though most Western scholars agree on Afghani’s Iranian origin.
As a believer in reform and as a pioneer in various forms of political activisim and agitation in many countries, Afghani had an important influence that continues in the Muslim world today.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
“Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement” see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani was born near Hamadan and educated in Iran and the Shi‘ite shrine cities of Ottoman Iraq. Educated in rationalist philosophy, taught more in Iran than elsewhere in the Muslim world, Afghani was also influenced by the philosophically oriented and innovative Shaikhi school of Shi‘ism. Around 1857, he went to India, where he seems to have acquired his lifelong hatred of British imperialism. After a trip, probably via Mecca and Iraq, he went to Afghanistan and entered the counsels of the Afghan emir, advising him to fight the British. When his patron was defeated by Amir Shir Ali, the latter expelled Afghani.
Afghani went briefly to India and Cairo, and then to Istanbul, where he became a friend of the head of the Dar al-Fonun, a new university. In 1870, Afghani gave a lecture at the university. He compared philosophy to prophecy and implied that prophecy was a craft, thus giving the Ottoman ulama (religious scholars), already hostile to the secular university, an excuse to attack the university and bring on Afghani’s expulsion.
Afghani stayed then in Cairo from 1871 to 1879. There he did his most fruitful work. He was given a stipend by the Egyptian government to teach young Egyptians. Among his disciples was the later great Muslim reformer Muhammad Abduh. From 1875 onwards, Afghani entered politics by (1) leading an Arab Masonic lodge, which he tried to use to achieve the abdication of Isma‘il in favor of his son Tawfiq, (2) promoting the formation of political newspapers by his disciples, and (3) giving effective mass orations, directed especially against Westerners in Egypt. When Tawfiq took power with Franco-British aid in 1879 and Afghani continued to attack the British, he was exiled to India in August 1879.
In India, Afghani went to the Muslim principality of Hyderabad, where he published several Persian articles and his one treatise, known as the Refutation of the Materialists, which was aimed mainly at the pro-British Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and his school. After detention by the British in Calcutta, Afghani left for Paris, stopping in London. In London and Paris, Afghani wrote articles against the British occupation of Egypt, and also wrote the irreligious French “Answer to Renan,”a notable defense of Islam against Ernest Renan. He got Abduh to join him in Paris, where they published the reformist and anti-British paper, Al-urwa al-wuthqa, in 1884. It was at this time that Afghani first expressed the pan-Islamic views most often associated with him. Until then, he had spoken rather in terms of regional nationalisms.
In 1886, Afghani sailed to the Iranian port of Bushehr, where his books and papers had been sent from Egypt. He planned to go to Russia, where the Slavophile editor Mikhail Katkov had invited him, but the Iranian minister of press invited him to Tehran. Jamal al-Din stayed with the wealthy Amin al-Zarb. His anti-foreign talk evidently disturbed the shah, who asked Amin al-Zarb to take Afghani with him to Russia, which he did. There he made futile attempts to convince Russia to fight Britain. Afghani overtook the shah’s party in Munich in 1889, and after a brief return to Russia he came back to Iran, where the prime minister refused to see him. Afghani then began to encourage secret organization and leaflets against the government, and forestalled expulsion by taking sanctuary at a shrine. In January 1891, he was expelled from Iran after a leaflet attacked the government for its concessions (especially the tobacco concession) to foreigners. When the Qajar Shah (Nasir al-Din) had Afghani forcibly removed from a place near Tehran which had been regarded as an inviolable sanctuary (in Persian, bast) Afghani developed feelings of hatred and a desire for vengeance towards the shah.
Afghani went to Iraq, and when the Tobacco Rebellion broke out in Iran, a mujtahid expelled from Shiraz visited Afghani, who wrote a letter against the shah and the tobacco concession to the leading mujtahid, Mirza Hasan Shirazi, who was important in the concession’s cancellation.
Frequently opposed by the ulama (the Muslim clergy) and suspected as dissident by the temporal powers, Afghani was often on the run. In 1891 and 1892, Afghani spent months speaking and writing in England with Malkom Khan. In 1892, Afghani was invited to be the guest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid in Istanbul. In Istanbul, Afghani was employed by Sultan Abdulhamid (‘Abd al-Hamid II) to promulgate pan-Islamic ideals. There he worked with a group of Iranians and Shi‘ites to get Shi‘ites to recognize Abdulhamid’s claim to be caliph of all Muslims.
In 1896, Afghani’s disciple, Mirza Riza Kirmani, visited Afghani. Afghani inspired Mirza to kill Nasir al-Din Shah on May 1, 1896. The friendship between Afghani and the Sultan subsequently cooled, essentially because of Afghani’s complicity in the assassination of the Persian ruler. Indeed, Afghani was placed under house arrest by the Sultan. Iran’s futile efforts to extradite Afghani ended with Afghani’s death in 1897.
Afghani died on March 9, 1897 in Istanbul and was buried there. However, in late 1944, at the request of the Afghan government, his remains were taken to Afghanistan and laid to rest in Kabul inside the Kabul University where a mausoleum was erected for him.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was most effective as a pamphleteer, journalist, orator, and revolutionary activist. As a Muslim modernist and political propagandist, he advocated unity of the Islamic world and selective borrowing from the West for the purpose of stemming the tide of Western imperialism. He was the adviser of Muslim rulers in many parts of the Islamic world and a political activist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman empire. With him, began the reform movement which gave rise to the Salafiyya and, later on, to the Muslim Brothers.
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. Instead, 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).
Afghani’s development of the philosophical bases for Islamic modernism was left to his most illustrious pupil from the Cairo period, Muhammad ‘Abduh. However, in Afghanistan, Afghans revere his memory and believe him to be a descendant of a family of Sayyids from Asadabad in Kunar Province of Afghanistan, even though most Western scholars agree on Afghani’s Iranian origin.
As a believer in reform and as a pioneer in various forms of political activisim and agitation in many countries, Afghani had an important influence that continues in the Muslim world today.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
“Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement” see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
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