al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din (1838-97)

Al-Afghani is often described as one of the most prominent Islamic political leaders
and philosophers of the nineteenth century. He was concerned with the subjection of
the Muslim world by Western colonial powers, and he made the liberation,
independence and unity of the Islamic world one of the major aims of his life. He
provided a theoretical explanation for the relative decline of the Islamic world, and a
philosophical theory of history which sought to establish a form of modernism
appropriate to Islam.

1. Life and times

2. Philosophy of history

1. Life and times

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was born in 1838 about 180 miles from Kabul, of a
distinguished family. He received a thorough training in a variety of languages of
Islamic countries and the religious sciences. When he was eighteen years old he began
the constant travels which were to mark his life. He visited much of the Islamic world
as well as Europe, and set up a political organization which called on Muslims to fight
injustice and the imposition of imperialism. He had a great impact upon Muhammad
'Abduh and reactions by intellectual Egyptians to the incursion of the Europeans. He
eventually sided with the Ottoman empire but soon became disillusioned with the
Sultan, and died in suspicious circumstances in Turkey in 1897.

2. Philosophy of history

Al-Afghani's philosophical contributions are to be found in his book ar-Radd 'alal-

dahriyyin (Refutation of the Materialists). Citing philosophers such
as Democritus and Darwin, he criticized the naturalist and materialist philosophers for
their denial, either directly or indirectly, of the existence of God. He then went on to
elaborate at great length on religion's contribution to civilization and progress.
According to al-Afghani, religion has taught humanity three fundamental beliefs: its
angelical or spiritual nature, the belief of every religious community in its superiority
over other groups, and the assertion that our existence in this world is but a prelude to
a higher life in a world entirely free from sorrow and suffering. Our angelic nature
urges us to rise above our bestial proclivities and live in peace with our fellow human
beings. The feeling of competitive superiority on the part of the various religious
groups generates competitiveness, whereby the various communities will strive to
improve their lot and persist in their quest for knowledge and progress. Finally, the
third truth provides an incentive to be constantly aware of the higher and eternal world
that awaits us. This in turn will motivate human beings to refrain from the evil and
malice to which they may be tempted, and live a life of love, peace and justice.

Al-Afghani mentions that religion implants in its believers the three traits of honesty,
modesty and truthfulness. He further maintains that the greatness of the major nations
of the world has always been entailed by their cultivation of these traits. Through
these virtues the Greeks were able to confront and destroy the Persian empire.
However, when the Greeks adopted the materialism and hedonism of Epicurus, the
result was decay and subjection by the Romans. Likewise the ancient Persians, a very
noble people, began with the rise of Mazdaism the same downward journey as the
Greeks, which resulted in their moral erosion and subjection by the Arabs. Similarly,
the Muslim empire, which rose on the same solid moral and religious foundation as
did both the Greeks and Persians, became so weakened that a small band of Franks
(that is, the crusaders), was able to score significant victories against them.
Subsequently, the hordes of Genghis Khan were able to trample the whole land of
Islam, sack its cities and massacre its people.

Al-Afghani bases his philosophy on a theory of history in which religion is portrayed

as a catalytic force in the progress of humanity. Interestingly, he stresses that religious
beliefs must be founded upon sound demonstration and valid proof without any
supernatural aspect. This rationalism manifests an important element of modernity in
al-Afghani's thinking. However, such modernity does not diminish his strong belief in
religion as an integral component and fundamental force behind humanity's quest for
morality, truthfulness and integrity.

Al-Afghani's philosophical views revealed a great deal of faith in the human mind and
its capacity for innovations based on knowledge rather than ignorance. He expressed
great faith in humanity as being one of the greatest miracles of the universe, and
believed that there are no areas which can remain forever closed to the human mind.
Surprisingly, he predicted that people would reach the moon as a step in a series of
strides by mankind, as he believed that nature and the universe were created so that
we could continue the challenge of unravelling their secrets.

In his criticism of Darwin's theory of evolution (see Evolution, theory of), al-Afghani

presents a philosophical theory about nature in response to Darwin's theory. He
believes in the nature of what he termed 'natural selection', whereby survival in nature
will be for the strongest and the fittest. Thus if a number of plants are planted in a
single space of earth which does not have food for all these plants, it will be noticed
that the plants will compete among themselves for food. In due course, some of the
plants will become more developed than the others, which will wither. He applies the
same theory to the world of animals, including human beings, where the influence of
power is more noticeable than elsewhere. He even goes further than Darwin by
applying the theory to the area of ideas, maintaining that ideas are born out of other
ideas and may be greater than those ideas; this explains why posterity may sometimes
excel and be superior to its ancestry. Al-Afghani believes that these developments are
due to the impact of nature's aspects and not necessarily the result of human effort.
His criticism of Darwin's theory lessened gradually as he began to express views
similar to those of Darwin. He cites earlier Muslim scholars such as Ibn Bashroun
who had talked about the evolution from dust of plants and animals. Al-Afghani,
however, continued to maintain strong disagreement with Darwin on one fundamental
issue, that of the creation of life; this al-Afghani unequivocally ascribes to God.

See also: 'Abduh, M.; Darwin, C.R.; Evolution, theory of; Islamic philosophy, modern

ELSAYED M.H. OMRAN

OLIVER LEAMAN
Copyright © 1998, Routledge.

List of works
al-Afghani (1838-97) ar-Radd 'alal-dahriyyin (Refutation of the Materialists), Cairo,
1955. (The main philosophical contribution of al-Afghani.)

References and further reading

Keddie, N. (1968) An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings
of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (An
useful series of essays linking al-Afghani's philosophical and political views.)

Keddie, N. (1972) Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani: A Political Biography, Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press. (An important study of al-Afghani's politics, with useful
material on his general philosophical views.)

Kedourie, E. (1966) Afghani and 'Abduh, London: Cass. (Deals extensively with

Afghani's political philosophy and its influence on 'Abduh.)

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Chapter 74: Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani

A: Introduction
While Europe was disengaging herself from the spiritual hold of Rome and embarking upon the
hazardous yet challenging road of freedom, the Arab world was being isolated from and
insulated against almost all outside influences and changes. This process of isolation and
insulation continued unabated till it came to an abrupt end at the time of the Napoleonic
expedition against Egypt in 1213/1798.
This was indeed the first serious external stimulus that the Arab and the Muslim world had
received since the Ottoman conquest in 922/1516. The episode of French occupation of Egypt
was quite significant as it ushered a new era for the Muslim world, an era in which the Western
nations began to penetrate into the lands of the Muslims at a breakneck speed.
The story of this penetration is very painful to narrate but it proved to be a blessing in disguise
since it awakened the Muslims from their slumber. The Muslim society, which was a medieval
and ossified society, when it faced a relentless and superior power that subjected its people and
exploited its wealth, fully realized the enormity of the danger.
The method by which the policy of the Western imperialists was executed and the resistance
crushed, and the way in which the culture of the conquerors was imposed, did not foster either
understanding or friendship, but rather created doubts and promoted fears with regard to the
intentions of the rulers. The Muslims were alarmed at the situation that not only their political
freedom was in peril, but their institutions, culture, and even their faith, the bedrock of their life,
were also being threatened.
The advent of the modern Christian missionary movement at about the same time confirmed this
belief. Islam as a result became a rallying call for existence and an instrument of protest against
foreigners. The foreigners in turn arrived at the conclusion that unless this potent instrument was
dubbed, their position in Muslim lands would not become stable. They, therefore, besides
tightening their political control, tried to change the outlook of the younger generations of the
Muslims by encouraging Christian missionary activity and foreign educational efforts.
“Throughout the Muslim world in general and the Arab world in particular this relentless
political penetration galvanized Muslims into a reaction consonant with Islam's politico-religious
structure. This structure being both a religion and a State at the same time, weakness in one was
deemed by the Muslims weakness in the other and vice versa” (Nabih Amin Faris).
This feeling culminated in a form of movement that aroused the Muslims on the one hand to
defend their lands against the inroads of Western imperialism and on the other to save their faith
against the aggression of the Christian missionary. That is how the Muslims came to realize that
they could not, even if they wanted to continue to live as they had hitherto lived, be com-
placently secure in the illusion that the pattern of life accepted as valid in the past must for ever
remain valid, for that complacency, that security of convictions and illusions, was shattered to
pieces by what had happened to them in the last few decades.
It was the realization of this time-lag between the demands of a new situation and their
traditional ways of thinking and living which inspired them with a strong desire to cast off their
fatal inertia. The Muslims were, thus, awakened to the need of taking stock of their cultural
holdings. They observed that only paying lip-service to their ideology could not help them to
solve the problems which had cropped up as a result of the penetration of Western Powers in
their respective lands.
If they really wanted to defend their freedom without obliterating Islam as a basis of their
civilization, they must make a fresh start in terms of Islamic programme and thus resurrect their
society from the old ashes of convention and decay. In case they did not realize the gravity of the
situation and simply clung to old notions and conventions in their entirety, they would be playing
the game of the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand in order to escape the necessity
of making a decision.
If Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab of Arabia (Chap. 72) and Shah Wali Allah of the Indo-
Pakistan sub-continent (Chap. 79) be considered to be precursors of the modern awakening in
Islam and their movements the signs of the coming dawn, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1254/1838-
1314/1897) must be taken to be the foremost leader of this awakening and his movement the first
glow of the dawn.
He was the greatest Oriental thinker of the thirteenth/nineteenth century. It has rightly been said
that the message of al-Afghani burst through the reigning obscurantism as a splendid lightning.
He was a thinker and at the same time a man of action, endowed with a penetrating intelligence
and a great heart. His rare intellectual gifts and his high moral qualities gave to his personality
the magnetism peculiar to all great leaders and drew to him many followers.
Al-Afghani was for the Muslim world a comprehensive personality, being at the same time a
great thinker, a religious reformer, and a political leader. Among his contemporaries he was
regarded as a remarkable writer, a charming and eloquent speaker, and a dialectician endowed
with great powers of persuasion. According to Muhammad Abduh, be was also a man of heart
and strong will, ever ready to undertake actions requiring the greatest courage and generosity,
and devoted to the things of the spirit.
This “wild man of genius,” as Blunt called him, always refused to consider money or honours,
and preferred, without doubt, to preserve his liberty of action in order to serve better the ideal to
which he devoted his whole life, namely, the rebirth of the Muslim world.
During his stay in Paris in 1301/1883, al-Afghani met Ernest Renan on whom he made such an
impression that the illustrious French writer could not but express his enthusiasm in these terms:
“The freedom of his thought, his noble and loyal character made me believe during our
conversation that I bad before me, brought to life again, one of my old acquaintances, Avicenna,
Averroes, or another of those great infidels who represented during five centuries the tradition of
the human spirit.”
B: Life
Problems touching the origin of Jamal al-Din are far from having been solved. The biographers
of diverse Islamic lands-Turks, Persians, Indians, and Afghans, still claim the honour of being
his compatriots. In reality, although he was named al-Afghani, i.e., coming from Afghanistan, his
activities and influence were widespread; every Islamic land was home to him; and, besides, he
was no stranger to the capitals of Europe. He made the acquaintance of scholars, theologians, and
politicians both from the East and the West.
His early studies were pursued in Persia and Afghanistan where, by the age of eighteen, he had
acquired an exceptionally thorough mastery of Islamic studies, philosophy, and science. The next
year and a half, spent in India, introduced him to European teachings. He then made a pilgrimage
to Mecca.
On his return to Afghanistan, there followed for him a decade of political career, interrupted by
the vicissitudes of civil war. His liberal ideas and his popularity with the people led to the covert
hostility of the English who were supporting Amir Shir Ali. On this Amir's accession in
1286/1869, Jamal al-Din left the country.
For a short period, he visited India again. The Indian Government honoured him, but also
imposed restrictions on his activities. So he proceeded to Constantinople by way of Egypt where
he made his mark at al-Azhar. In Constantinople he was well received but eventually his
advanced views brought him the disfavour of the Shaikh al-Islam, and the resulting controversy
was so heated that he was asked to leave the country in 1288/1871.
This was the prelude to an important period of his life, his stay in Egypt, where the warm
reception given him by intellectual circles induced him to prolong his visit. There he spread his
new ideas-notably influencing the future reformer Muhammad Abduh, and did much to awaken
the young Egyptians to the dangers of foreign domination. Finally, however, his advanced
religious views offended the conservative theologians and his political opponents, the British,
and he was expelled from Egypt in 1297/1879.
Repairing to India, he wrote “The Refutation of the Materialists,” a defence of Islam against
modern attacks. While he was in India, the Arabi Rebellion broke out in Egypt, whereupon the
British detained him until the defeat of Arabi.
Then followed a period of three years in Paris, fruitful for the publication of his ideas. In
1301/1883, he carried on a controversy with Ernest Renan on “Islam and Science,” and in
1302/1884, published with his disciple Muhammad Abduh, exiled from Egypt for his complicity
in the Arabi uprising, an Arabic weekly al-Urwat al-Wuthqa (The Indissoluble Link) aiming at
arousing the Muslims against Western exploitation. The British soon banned the paper in Egypt
and India; nevertheless, in its short life it did exercise some influence in these countries.
From Paris, al-Afghani went to London to discuss the Mahdi uprising in the Sudan but was
unable to obtain an agreement with the British. Thence, interrupted by a four years’ stay in
Russia, followed a period of service under the Shah of Persia, ending in his expulsion in
1308/1890 or 1309/1891 when his reforming zeal antagonized the Shah.
Then followed another brief visit to England where Jamal al-Din started his campaign against the
Shah and published his “Splendour of the Two Hemispheres” (Dia al-Khafiqain) ending in his
ill-fated acceptance of the Sultan of Turkey’s invitation to be his guest at Constantinople for
there he had to remain in “gilded captivity” till his death in 1315/1897.

C: Philosophy
The life of al-Afghani corresponded exactly with his thought; in him theory and practice were
closely linked. In this respect one might compare his mission in the modern Muslim world with
that of Socrates in Hellenic antiquity. His life and thought were both marked by three
characteristic traits: a subtle spirituality, a profound religious sense, and a high moral sense that
influenced very strongly all his actions.
1. Spirituality: This trait manifested itself clearly in his detachment from physical pleasures, in
his pursuit of spiritual things, and in his devotion to the ideals to which he had dedicated himself.
As Abbas al-Aqqad has said, Jamal al-Din was opposed to the propaganda made among the
Muslims in favour of materialism; with his natural perspicacity he exposed the characteristic
traits of materialism. He published a book entitled “The Refutation of the Materialists” (al-
Raddala al-Dahriyyin). “Sometimes the materialists,” says al-Afghani, “proclaim their concern
to purify our minds from superstition and to illuminate our intelligence with true knowledge;
sometimes they present themselves to us as friends of the poor, protectors of the weak, and
defenders of the oppressed.... Whatever the group to which they belong, their action constitutes a
formidable shock which will not fail to shake the very foundations of society and destroy the
fruits of its labour.... Their words would suppress the noble motives of our hearts; their ideas
would poison our souls; and their tentacles would be a continual source of disturbance for the
established order.” Jamal al-Din had denounced the sophism and practices of the partisans of the
materialistic interpretation of history before it became well known in Europe.
2. Religious Sense: This trait found its expression in almost all of al-Afghani’s writings and is
notably manifest in his views about the function of religion in society. “Religion,” he wrote, “is
the very substance of nations and the real source of the happiness of man.”
Moreover, true civilization, he held, is that which is based on learning, morality, and religion,
and not on material progress such as the building of great cities, the accumulation of great riches,
or the perfection of the engines of murder and destruction.
3. Moral Sense: His acute moral sense subjected him to the famous accusation that he addressed
himself against the imperialistic colonial policy of the Western powers, a policy based upon their
intention to exploit the weak. He was of the view that what the Occidentals designate as
“colonization” is in reality no other than what is its opposite in meaning, “decolonization,” “de-
population,” and “destruction.”
It was this view that made al-Afghani make a distinction between “the Holy Wars” of Islam,
which aimed at the propagation of faith, and the economic wars of Europe, which always ended
in the subjugation and enslavement of the vanquished peoples.
He clearly distinguished between “Muslim socialism,” which, according to him, is based on love,
reason, and freedom, and material communism,” which is erected on hatred, selfishness, and
tyranny.
Al-Afghani was a true Muslim and a rationalist. He appealed to the Muslims of all sects to make
use of the principle of rationalism that is a special privilege of Islam. “Of all religions,” he says,
“Islam is almost the only one that blames those who believe without having proofs, and rebukes
those who follow opinions without having any certainty.... In whatever Islam teaches, it appeals
to reason ... and the holy texts proclaim that happiness consists in the right use of reason.”
In the same spirit, al-Afghani advocated the Mutazilite doctrine of free will against fatalism; this
latter is an attitude commonly but wrongly attributed to the Muslims by the Western people.
According to Jamal al-Din, there is a great difference between the Muslim belief in al-qada wal-
qadar(predestination) and that in al-jabr(fatalism).
Al-qada wal-qadar is a belief that strengthens the faculty of resolution in man, builds up his
moral stamina, and inculcates in him courage and endurance. Al-jabr, on the other hand, is
nothing but an evil innovation (bidah) that was introduced maliciously into the Muslim world for
political purposes.

D: Political Thought
Al-Afghani made himself the champion of what Western writers call political “Pan-Islamism,”
preaching the union of all Islamic peoples under the same Caliphate for the purpose of
emancipating themselves from foreign domination. He used to say that “the European States
justify the attacks and humiliations inflicted by them upon the countries of the East on the pretext
of the latter’s backwardness.
Nevertheless, the same States try to prevent by all means in their power, even by war, all
attempts at reform or renaissance of the Islamic peoples. From all this arises the necessity for the
Muslim world to unite in a great defensive alliance, in order to preserve itself against annihi-
lation; to achieve this it must acquire the technique of Western progress and learn the secrets of
European power.”
He propounded these ideas in al-Urwat al-Wuthqa, under the title “Islamic Unity.” He
maintained that Muslims were once united under one glorious empire, and that their
achievements in learning and philosophy and all the sciences are still the boast of all Muslims. It
is a duty incumbent upon all Muslims to aid in maintaining the authority of Islam and Islamic
rule over all Muslim lands, and they are not permitted under any circumstances to make peace
with and be conciliatory towards anyone who contends their mastery over their lands, until they
obtain complete authority without sharing it with anyone else.
The bonds holding the Muslims together, al-Afghani maintained, began to fall apart when the
Abbasid Caliphs became contented with their titular powers ceased to encourage scholars and
those trained in religious matters, and stopped the exercise of ijtihad (free thinking). He said,
“Today we see Muslim rulers giving a free hand too foreigners in managing the affairs of their
States and even of their own houses and fastening the yoke of foreign rule upon their own necks.
Europeans, greedy for Muslim lands, seek to destroy their religious unity and, thus, take
advantage of the inner discords of Muslim countries.”
However, as it has been rightly pointed out, al-Afghani did not intend to substitute religious zeal
for national patriotism; he wished the efforts of the Muslim countries to converge independently
of one another towards a common goal-political liberation. And it was in order to regenerate
Turkey, Persia, India, and Egypt that he worked for the resuscitation of Islam, a religion that
exercises such profound influence on the political and social life of those who profess it.
In advocating the defence of one's own country, Jamal al-Din wrote in the Urwat al-Wuthqa: “To
defend one's homeland is a law of nature and a precept of life bound up with the demands made
by nature through the instinctive urges for food and drink.” About traitors he says: “By the term
‘traitor’ we do not refer to the individual who sells his country for money and gives her over to
an enemy for a price, whether it be great or small, no price for which one’s country is sold can
ever be great; the real traitor is one who is responsible for the enemy's taking one step on his land
and who allows the enemy to plant his foot on his country's soil, while he is able to shake it
loose. He indeed is the real traitor in whatever guise he may appear. Anyone who is capable of
counteracting the enemy in thought or action, and then acquits himself poorly in this, is a
traitor.”
He goes on to say: “There is no shame attached to any small and weak nation, if she is
vanquished by the armed might of a nation larger and stronger than she. But the disgrace which
the passage of time will not erase, is that the nation, or one of her individuals or a group, should
run to put their necks under the enemy’s yoke, whether through carelessness in the management
of their affairs or out of desire for some temporary benefit, for they become thus the agents of
their own destruction.”
The Occidentals, according to al-Afghani, adopt in the East strange methods for suppressing the
patriotic spirit, stifling national education, and destroying Oriental culture. Thus, they incite the
Orientals to deny every virtue and every value in vogue in their respective countries. They
persuade them that there is not, in the Arabic, Persian, or Indian languages, any literature worth
mentioning, and that in their history there is not a single glory to report.
They make them to believe that all merit for an Oriental consists in turning away from the
understanding of his own language and in feeling proud of the fact that he cannot express himself
well in his own language, and in maintaining that all he can attain in human culture resides in the
jargon of some Occidental language.
The Orientals, exhorted Jamal al-Din, must understand that there cannot be a sense of being one
community in a people who do not have their own language; that there cannot be a language for
a people who have no literature of their own; that there can be no glory for a people who have no
history of their own; that there cannot be history for a people who have no attachment to the
heritage of their country or recognition of the great achievements of their men.

E: Conclusion
Al Afghani died in exile in Istanbul on the 9th of March 1897. His short life had been full of
persecutions and vexations which were the natural result either of despotism or of ignorance, but
it was a life of heroism, full of noble thoughts and lofty notions, a life which exercised on the
succeeding generations of the Muslims a lasting influence which has not been surpassed.
In fact, the secret of his personality and of all his activities was his love of freedom and
independence and his antagonism to any oppression whether internal or external.
Self-dignity was the ideal of his life. The Muslims have to set up as a maxim, as they did in the
past, the fine principle so well expressed in the verse: “Live in dignity and die in dignity; among
the blows of swords and the waving of flags.”
But, unfortunately, the Muslims have for long disregarded this principle. Having accepted a life
of submission and servitude, they have fallen so low that others who have adopted their maxim
as an ideal of life have been able to attain higher degrees of perfection and glory.
It is now necessary to proceed without delay on a new enterprise aiming to inspire the Muslims
with a new spirit and to create a new generation. It is necessary, finally, to form associations of
“salvation,” led by men of faith and sincerity who would swear never to seek favour from the
holders of power, never to he deceived by promises, never to flinch before threats, and ever to
continue their efforts till they obtain the removal, from positions of authority in their country, of
all the timorous hypocrites and charlatans.
More than sixty years have elapsed since the death of al-Afghani, but his illustrious name will
rest engraved in all memories and his attractive personality will remain dear to all Muslim hearts.
As was pointed out by Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, al-Afghani was in the history of modern Orient the
first defender of freedom as he was also its first martyr. Indeed, he is the father of modern
renaissance in Islam.

Bibliography

A: Works of al-Afghani
Al-Radd ala al-Dahriyyin (Refutation of the Materialists), 1st edition, Beirut, 1886; Maqalat
Jamaliyyah (in Persian) ed. Lutf Allah Asad Abadi, Teheran (n.d.); al-Urwat al-Wuthqa (with
the collaboration of Muhammad Abduh), latest edition, Cairo, 1958; al-Qada wal-Qadar (On
Predestination), al-Manar Printing Press, Cairo, 1923.

B: Works on al-Afghani
Georges Cotchy, Djamal-Eddine al-Afghani et les mysteres de Sa Majeste Imperiale Abd al-
Hamid II, Cairo (n.d.); Goldziher, “Djamal al-Din al-Afghani,” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. I;
E. G. Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909, Cambridge, 1910; Jurji Zaidan, Mashahir
al-Sharq  (Eastern Celebrities), Cairo, 1910; W.S. Blunt, Gordon at Khartoum, London, 1911;
Abd al-Qahir al-Qinawi, Tahrir al-Umam min Kalb al-Ajam (The Liberation of Nations from the
Persian Dog, a diatribe against al-Afghani), Cairo (n.d.); M. Sallam Madkour, Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani; Baith al-Nahdah al-Fikhriyyah fi al-Sharq  (al-Afghani, Inspirer of the Intellectual
Renaissance in the East), Cairo, 1937, (with a Preface by Mustafa Abd al-Raziq); Muhammad al-
Makhzoumi Pasha, Khatirat Jamal al-Din(Thoughts of Jamal al-Din), Beirut, 1931; Ahmad
Amin, Zuama al-Islah fi al-Asr al-Hadith (Leaders of Reform in Modern Times), Cairo, 1948;
Abd al-Qadir al-Maghribi, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Cairo, 1948; Abbas al-Aqqad, Ala al-
Athir (On the Air), Cairo, 1947; Maqam Jamal al-Din Afghani(in Urdu), Nafis Academy,
Karachi, 1939; Rida Hamdani, Jamal al-Din Afghani (in Urdu), Lahore, 1951; Mustafid al-
Rahman, Jamal al-Din Afghani (in Bengali), Dacca, 1955.
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī
Muslim journalist and politician
WRITTEN BY

Elie Kedourie
Professor of Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science,
University of London, 1965–90. Author of Afghani and &ayn;Abduh: An
Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in...
See Article History
Alternative Titles: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī al-Sayyid Muḥammad ibn Ṣafdar al-
Ḥusayn, Jamāl al-Dīn, al-Asadābādi
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, in fullJamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī al-Sayyid
Muḥammad ibn Ṣafdar al-Ḥusayn, also called Jamāl al-Dīn al-
Asadābādi, (born 1838, Asadābād, Persia [now in Iran]—died March 9, 1897,
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire[now in Turkey]), Muslim politician, political
agitator, and journalist whose belief in the potency of a revived Islamic
civilization in the face of European domination significantly influenced the
development of Muslim thought in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī

QUICK FACTS
BORN

1838
Asadabad, Iran
DIED

March 9, 1897 (aged 59)

Istanbul, Turkey
Very little is known about Afghānī’s family or upbringing. Despite the
appellation Afghānī, which he adopted and by which he is best known, some
scholars believe that he was not an Afghan but a PersianShiʿi (i.e., a member
of one of the two major divisions of Islam) born in Asadābād near Hamadan in
Persia. An appreciable part of Afghānī’s activities took place in areas
where Sunnism (the other major division of Islam) was predominant, and it
was probably to hide his Persian and Shiʿi origin, which would have aroused
suspicion among Sunnis, that he adopted the name Afghānī. As a young man,
he seems to have visited, perhaps in order to extend and perfect his theological
and philosophical education, Karbalaand Najaf, the Shiʿi centres in southern
Mesopotamia, as well as India and perhaps Istanbul. The intellectual currents
with which he came in contact remain obscure, but, whatever they were, they
made him early into a religious skeptic.
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Only from about November 1866, when Afghānī appeared
in Kandahar, Afghanistan, can evidence be pieced together to form a
consecutive and coherent picture of his life and activities. From the death in
1863 of the famous Dōst Moḥ ammad Khān, who had ruled for more than 20
years, Afghanistan had been the scene of civil wars occasioned by the quarrels
of his sons over the succession. In 1866 one of these sons, Shīr ʿAlī Khān, was
established in the capital, Kabul, but two of his brothers, Moḥ ammad Afḍ al
Khān and Moḥ ammad Aʿẓam Khān, were threatening his tenure. In January
1867 Shīr ʿAlī was defeated and expelled from Kabul, where Afḍ al and, upon
his death shortly afterward, Aʿẓam reigned successively in 1867–68. At the
end of 1866 Aʿẓam captured Kandahar, and Afghānī immediately became
Aʿẓam’s confidential counselor, following him to Kabul. He remained in this
position until Aʿẓam was in turn deposed by Shīr ʿAlī, who succeeded in
regaining his throne in September 1868.

That a foreigner should have attained so quickly such a position was remarked
upon in the contemporary accounts; some scholars speculate that Afghānī
(who then called himself Istanbulī) was, or represented himself to be, a
Russian emissary able to obtain for Aʿẓam Russian money and political
support against the British, with whom Aʿẓam was on bad terms. When Shīr
ʿAlī succeeded in regaining the throne, he was naturally suspicious of Afghānī
and expelled him from his territory in November 1868.

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Afghānī next appeared in Istanbul in 1870, where he gave a lecture in which he

likened the prophetic office to a human craft or skill. This view gave offense to
the religious authorities, who denounced it as heretical. Afghānī had to leave
Istanbul and in 1871 went to Cairo, where for the next few years he attracted a
following of young writers and divines, among them Muḥ ammad ʿAbduh, who
was to become the leader of the modernist movement in Islam, and Saʿd
Pasha Zaghlūl, founder of the Egyptian nationalist party, the Wafd. Again, a
reputation of heresy and unbelief clung to Afghānī. The ruler of Egypt then
was the khedive Ismāʿīl, who was both ambitious and spendthrift. By the mid-
1870s his financial mismanagement led to pressure by his European creditors
and great discontent among all his subjects. Ismāʿīl tried to divert their wrath
from himself to the creditors, but his maneuvers were clumsy, and, in
response to French and British pressure, his suzerain, the Ottoman sultan,
deposed him in June 1879. During this period of political effervescence,
Afghānī attempted to gain and manipulate power by organizing his followers
in a Masonic lodge, of which he became the leader, and by delivering fiery
speeches against Ismāʿīl. He seems to have hoped to attract thereby the favour
and confidence of Muḥ ammad Tawfīq Pasha, Ismāʿīl’s son and successor, but
the latter, reputedly fearing that Afghānī was propagating republicanism in
Egypt, ordered his deportation in August1879.

Afghānī then went to Hyderabad, India, and later, via Calcutta (now Kolkata),
to Paris, where he arrived in January 1883. His stay there contributed greatly
to his legend and posthumous influence as an Islamic reformer and a fighter
against European domination. In Paris, Afghānī, together with his former
student ʿAbduh, published an anti-British newspaper, Al-ʿUrwat al-
wuthqā (“The Indissoluble Link”), which claimed (falsely) to be in touch with
and have influence over the Sudanese Mahdī, a messianic bearer of justice and
equality expected by some Muslims in the last days. He also engaged Ernest
Renan, the French historian and philosopher, in a famous debate concerning
the position of Islam regarding science. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade
the British government to use him as intermediary in negotiation with the
Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid II, and then went to Russia, where his presence
is recorded in 1887, 1888, and 1889 and where the authorities seem to have
employed him in anti-British agitation directed to India. Afghānī next
appeared in Iran, where he again attempted to play a political role as the
shah’s counselor and was yet again suspected of heresy. The shah, Nāṣ er al-
Dīn Shāh, became very suspicious of him, and Afghānī began a campaign of
overt and violent opposition to the Iranian ruler. Again, in 1892, his fate was
deportation. For this, Afghānī revenged himself by instigating the shah’s
murder in 1896. It was his only successful political act.

From Iran, Afghānī went to London, where he stayed briefly, editing a

newspaper attacking the shah and urging resistance to him and particularly to
the tobacco concession that had been granted to a British subject. He then
went to Istanbul, in response to an invitation made by an agent of the sultan.
The sultan may have hoped to use him in pan-Islamic propaganda, but
Afghānī soon aroused suspicion and was kept inactive, at arm’s length and
under observation. He died in Istanbul. His burial place was kept secret, but in
1944 what was claimed to be his body, owing to the mistaken impression that
he was an Afghan, was transferred to Kabul, where a mausoleum was erected
for it.

Elie Kedourie
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HomeLiteratureJournalism

Journalism
WRITTEN BY

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have
extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on
that content or via study for an advanced degree....
See Article History
Alternative Title: reportage
 ARTICLE CONTENTS

Journalism, the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related

commentary and feature materials through such print and electronic media
as newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, social
networking and social media sites, and e-mail as well as through radio, motion
pictures, and television. The word journalismwas originally applied to the
reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but with
the advent of radio, television, and the Internet in the 20th century the use of
the term broadened to include all printed and electronic
communication dealing with current affairs.

Error! Filename not specified.

Journalism

KEY PEOPLE

 Mark Twain
 Samuel Johnson
 Karl Marx
 Georges Clemenceau
 Jonathan Swift
 Paul de Man
 James Joyce
 Ernest Hemingway
 Daniel Defoe
 John Wilkes
RELATED TOPICS
 Newspaper
 Tabloid journalism
 Infotainment
 Ad watch
  Magazine
 Soft news
 Citizen journalism
 Embedded journalism
 Stringer
 Shield law

History
The earliest known journalistic product was a news sheet circulated in ancient
Rome: the Acta Diurna, said to date from before 59 BCE. The Acta
Diurna recorded important daily events such as public speeches. It was
published daily and hung in prominent places. In China during the Tang
dynasty, a court circular called a bao, or “report,” was issued to government
officials. This gazette appeared in various forms and under various names
more or less continually to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911. The first
regularly published newspapers appeared in German cities and in Antwerp
about 1609. The first English newspaper, the Weekly Newes, was published in
1622. One of the first daily newspapers, The Daily Courant, appeared in 1702.

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

history of publishing: Newspaper publishing

“A community needs news,” said the British author Dame Rebecca West, “for the same reason that a

man...
At first hindered by government-imposed censorship, taxes, and other
restrictions, newspapers in the 18th century came to enjoy the reportorial
freedom and indispensable function that they have retained to the present
day. The growing demand for newspapers owing to the spread of literacy and
the introduction of steam- and then electric-driven presses caused the daily
circulation of newspapers to rise from the thousands to the hundreds of
thousands and eventually to the millions.

Magazines, which had started in the 17th century as learned journals, began to
feature opinion-forming articles on current affairs, such as those in
the Tatler (1709–11) and the Spectator (1711–12). Appearing in the 1830s
were cheap mass-circulation magazines aimed at a wider and less well-
educated public, as well as illustrated and women’s magazines. The cost of
large-scale news gathering led to the formation of news agencies,
organizations that sold their international journalistic reporting to many
different individual newspapers and magazines. The invention of
the telegraph and then radio and television brought about a great increase in
the speed and timeliness of journalistic activity and, at the same time,
provided massive new outlets and audiences for their electronically
distributed products. In the late 20th century, satellites and later
the Internet were used for the long-distance transmission of journalistic
information.

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The Profession
Journalism in the 20th century was marked by a growing sense
of professionalism. There were four important factors in this trend: (1) the
increasing organization of working journalists, (2) specialized education for
journalism, (3) a growing literature dealing with the history, problems, and
techniques of mass communication, and (4) an increasing sense of social
responsibility on the part of journalists.

An organization of journalists began as early as 1883, with the foundation of

England’s chartered Institute of Journalists. Like the American Newspaper
Guild, organized in 1933, and the Fédération Nationale de la Presse Française,
the institute functioned as both a trade union and a professional organization.

Before the latter part of the 19th century, most journalists learned their craft
as apprentices, beginning as copyboys or cub reporters. The
first university course in journalism was given at the University of
Missouri (Columbia) in 1879–84. In 1912 Columbia University in New York
City established the first graduate program in journalism, endowed by a grant
from the New York City editor and publisher Joseph Pulitzer. It was
recognized that the growing complexity of news reporting and newspaper
operation required a great deal of specialized training. Editors also found that
in-depth reporting of special types of news, such as political affairs,
business, economics, and science, often demanded reporters with education in
these areas. The advent of motion pictures, radio, and television as news
media called for an ever-increasing battery of new skills and techniques in
gathering and presenting the news. By the 1950s, courses in journalism
or communications were commonly offered in colleges.

The literature of the subject—which in 1900 was limited to two textbooks, a

few collections of lectures and essays, and a small number of histories and
biographies—became copious and varied by the late 20th century. It ranged
from histories of journalism to texts for reporters and photographers and
books of conviction and debate by journalists on journalistic capabilities,
methods, and ethics.

Concern for social responsibility in journalism was largely a product of the late
19th and 20th centuries. The earliest newspapers and journals were generally
violently partisan in politics and considered that the fulfillment of their social
responsibility lay in proselytizingtheir own party’s position and denouncing
that of the opposition. As the reading public grew, however, the newspapers
grew in size and wealth and became increasingly independent. Newspapers
began to mount their own popular and sensational “crusades” in order to
increase their circulation. The culmination of this trend was the competition
between two New York City papers, the World and the Journal, in the 1890s
(see yellow journalism).

The sense of social responsibility made notable growth as a result of

specialized education and widespread discussion of press responsibilities in
books and periodicals and at the meetings of the associations. Such reports as
that of the Royal Commission on the Press(1949) in Great Britain and the less
extensive A Free and Responsible Press (1947) by an unofficial Commission
on the Freedom of the Press in the United States did much to stimulate self-
examination on the part of practicing journalists.

By the late 20th century, studies showed that journalists as a group were
generally idealistic about their role in bringing the facts to the public in an
impartial manner. Various societies of journalists issued statements of ethics,
of which that of the American Society of NewspaperEditors is perhaps best
known.

Present-Day Journalism
Although the core of journalism has always been the news, the latter word has
acquired so many secondary meanings that the term “hard news” gained
currency to distinguish items of definite news value from others of marginal
significance. This was largely a consequence of the advent of radio and
television reporting, which brought news bulletins to the public with a speed
that the press could not hope to match. To hold their audience, newspapers
provided increasing quantities of interpretive material—articles on the
background of the news, personality sketches, and columns of timely comment
by writers skilled in presenting opinion in readable form. By the mid-1960s
most newspapers, particularly evening and Sunday editions, were relying
heavily on magazine techniques, except for their content of “hard news,”
where the traditional rule of objectivity still applied. Newsmagazines in much
of their reporting were blending news with editorial comment.

Journalism in book form has a short but vivid history. The proliferation of
paperback books during the decades after World War II gave impetus to the
journalistic book, exemplified by works reporting and analyzing election
campaigns, political scandals, and world affairs in general, and the “new
journalism” of such authors as Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, and Norman
Mailer.

The 20th century saw a renewal of the strictures and limitations imposed
upon the press by governments. In countries with communist governments,
the press was owned by the state, and journalists and editors were government
employees. Under such a system, the prime function of the press to report the
news was combined with the duty to uphold and support the
national ideologyand the declared goals of the state. This led to a situation in
which the positive achievements of communist states were stressed by the
media, while their failings were underreported or ignored. This rigorous
censorship pervaded journalism in communist countries.

In noncommunist developing countries, the press enjoyed varying degrees of

freedom, ranging from the discreet and occasional use of self-censorship on
matters embarrassing to the home government to a strict and omnipresent
censorship akin to that of communist countries. The press enjoyed the
maximum amount of freedom in most English-speaking countries and in the
countries of western Europe.

Whereas traditional journalism originated during a time when information

was scarce and thus highly in demand, 21st-century journalism faced an
information-saturated market in which news had been, to some degree,
devalued by its overabundance. Advances such as satellite and digital
technology and the Internet made information more plentiful and accessible
and thereby stiffened journalistic competition. To meet increasing consumer
demandfor up-to-the-minute and highly detailed reporting, media outlets
developed alternative channels of dissemination, such as online distribution,
electronic mailings, and direct interaction with the public via forums, blogs,
user-generated content, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the second decade of the 21st century, social media platforms in

particular facilitated the spread of politically oriented “fake news,” a kind of
disinformation produced by for-profit Web sites posing as legitimate news
organizations and designed to attract (and mislead) certain readers by
exploiting entrenched partisan biases. During the campaign for the U.S.
presidential election of 2016 and after his election as president in that
year, Donald J. Trump regularly used the term “fake news” to disparagenews
reports, including by established and reputable media organizations, that
contained negative information about him.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by  Brian
Duignan, Senior Editor.

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Islamic political thought/Afghani lecture

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< Islamic political thought

Content for the lecture:

In the lecture about Jamal al-din al-Afghani, I plan to address a few topics. First, I will address
the problems that Afghani saw as the cause of the decline of Islam. I will further elaborate on
those problems by explaining what it was that Afghani thought to be the solution. This solution
includes his development of Pan-Islamism and his thoughts in his Refutation of the Materialists.
Also, by way of that writing, he also exhibits his disagreement with Sayyid Ahmad Khan, which
I will address at the end of the lecture.

Learning goals for the day:

As a result of the lecture, I anticipate that students will understand what it was that Afghani holds
accountable for the decline of Islam, as well as have an understanding of what he suggests is the
proper solution to halt the decline. I also think that students should be able to link how Afghani’s
ideas still apply to Islam in today’s world.

Lecture:

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was born in 1838, but his place of birth is unknown. What is
known is that he attended religious schools in Afghanistan and Iran early in his childhood. At
age seventeen or eighteen, he went to India to continue his studies. While in India, Afghani
became closely acquainted with the ideas of Sayyid Ahmad Khan and wrote his famous work,
later to be titled Refutation of the Materialists, in 1881. This work was written in rejection of
Khan and his followers. Further detail of this will be addressed later in the lecture. Afghani is
considered to be the founding father of Islamic modernism. In his expression of the necessity of
modernism, he states:

“With a thousands regrets I say that the Muslims of India have carried…their fanaticism to such
an evil extreme that they turn away with distaste and disgust from sciences and arts and
industries. All that is associated with the enemies of Islam…they regard as inauspicious and
unwholesome…Alas, this misuse of religious orthodoxy will end in such weakness and disaster
that, I am afraid, the Muslims of India will some day find themselves annihilated (Ahmad, 59—
quoted by Afghani).

One of Afghani’s most noted works was Refutation of the Materialists. In this work, he argues
against all aspects of materialists, including the fact that they believe that the world is a being
independent of any outside power (God), or a self-regulating structure. One of his fairly less
noted works, but mentioned in this lecture, is Why Has Islam Become Weak. This piece
primarily describes the Muslims’ decline throughout history, and especially during his time. 
Afghani then goes on to elaborate on the cause of possible outcome in the decline of Islam. He
views the British with suspicious eyes, and once described the country as “a dragon which had
swallowed twenty million people, and drunk up the waters of the Ganges and the Indus, but was
still unsatiated and ready to devour the rest of the world and to consume the waters of the Nile
and Oxus (Ahmad, 66—quote by Afghani). He also blamed the decline on the fact that Islam was
no longer politically integrated and all-embracing. He thought that it had been reduced to
religious dogmas and that the ulama, people of religious education and background, had lost
mutual contact because of it. To solve this part of the problem, Afghani proposed that the ulama
should build up their regional centers in various lands and guide the commoners by ijtihad baed
on the Quran and the Hadith (Ahmad, 70). 
In his Why Has Islam Become Weak, Afghani describes the lament and demise of the Muslims
during his time. His reasoning for such events is that Muslims have lost their courage and
strength and can no longer fight. He believed that the rulers humbled themselves before non-
Muslim (Ottoman) kings in order to survive a few days more. He further asserts that the decline
results from the Muslims failure to keep with the right path and places the responsibility on the
Muslims themselves because they had, and still have, the power to reverse the situation. On other
occasions, as stated prior, Afghani sometimes place the blame mostly with the British, and even
the French, the Netherlands, Russia, and China in some instances: the British occupied Egypt,
Sudan and the Indian peninsula; the French had taken possession of Morocco, Tunisia, and
Algeria; the Netherlands had become a tyrannical ruler of Java and the Oceanic Islands; Russia
had captured West Turkistan; and China had taken East Turkistan. On this, he elaborates in that
the Islamic states are pillaged and their property is stolen. Also, their territory is occupied by
these foreigners as well as their wealth. He asserts that out of fear, the Muslims do what they can
to survive, but no more (H—ir-, 122-124). As a remedy for such oppression, Afghani regards it
as the religious duty of Muslims to reconquer any territory taken away from them. He adds that
resistance, by violence if necessary, to non-Muslim aggression and reconquest is the duty not
merely of the Muslims in the particularly affected region, but of all Muslims (Ahmad, 69). 
Afghani believed that religious reform was the key to subsequent European progress and power
and such a reformation was also needed for the Islamic world to achieve the same goals (Keddie,
141). He brought the modernist message to Egypt. One of his greatest contributions to Islam
political thought was his belief that Islam could be used as a sociopolitical ideology to unite the
Muslim world against imperialism; he saw Islam as a civilization. He found that the only way to
achieve lasting social, political, and economic reform would be to contemporize the values that
found the Muslim community. He joined with the Young Ottomans, who developed a reformist
agenda that fused Western democratic ideals with traditional Islamic principles. These ideas
resulted in what is referred to as Pan-Islamism. Its principle goal was to encourage Muslim
cultural, sectarian, and national unity (Aslan, 229-231). 
Unfortunately, it was tough for Pan-Islamism to gain popularity because of it diversity. Groups
of secular nationalists found these ideas to be incompatible with their goals of modernization:
political independence, economic prosperity, and military power. This ultimately was the basis
for the ideology referred to as Pan-Arabism. The goal of this movement was to battle European
colonialism through a secular countermovement that would replace Pan-Islamism ideas of
religious unity with a more practical goal of racial unity. 
Beginning with Refutation of the Materialists, Afghani presents himself to Muslims more and
more as a defender both of Islam and Pan-Islam, according to Keddie (Keddie, 129). In this
writing of his, Afghani considers philosophy essential for the revival of Islamic civilization. His
Pan-Islamism sought to mobilize Muslim nations to fight against Western imperialism and gain
military power through modern technology. It is believed that his call of the independence of the
Muslim nations has been a key factor in the development of Islamic nationalism (cis-ca.org, 2). 
In Refutation of the Materialists, Afghani criticizes the naturalist/materialist position and
identifies people with this view as the epitome of evil intent on destroying human civilization.
He completely rejects their idea of the universe as a self-regulating structure without a higher
intelligence operating on it. He then moves to his social and ethical criticisms of the materialists.
He claimed that they were intent on destroying the castle of happiness based on the six pillars of
religion. These six pillars are divided into three beliefs and three qualities. The first belief is that
man is a terrestrial angel; he is God’s vicegerent on earth. Secondly, one’s community is the
noblest one both in the human world and in the human and religious society. The third belief
teaches that man is destined to reach the highest world. The first of the three qualities, modesty,
is what Afghani refers to as the modesty of the soul to commit sin against God and his fellow
men. The second quality if trustworthiness; the survival of human civilization is contingent upon
mutual respect and trust. Without these traits, he believes no society can have political stability
and economic prosperity. The final quality produced by religion is truthfulness and honesty. He
believes this is the foundation of social life and solidarity. Through these six pillars, he
established religion as the foundation of civilization and denounced materialism as the enemy of
religion and human society (cis-ca.org, 3).
In the Refutation, Afghani’ main target was Sayyid Ahmad Khan (cis-ca.org, 4). Khan founded
the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College where youths were educated on western lines and then
sent out to various districts in the country to convince fellow-Muslims of the merit and utility of
this approach. This college was the most important source of diffusion of western traits and ideas
for the followers of Khan (Malik, 221). In that as well as other articles, he violently attacked
Khan’s religio-political approach to the problems facing Muslim India. The disagreement was
based primarily on three major points: first, Afghani did not agree with the extremist rationalism
of Khan and regarded one of his writings as a heresy as it seemed to falsify the words of the
Quran. Secondly, he regarded Khan’s religious views and educational program as supplementary
to his political servitude to British interests in India; Afghani was extremely anti-British. Third,
as an expansion of point number two, Kahn was opposed to Pan-Islamism (Ahmad, 55-56).

Reading requirement: 

-Afghani’s Refutation of the Materialists

-Afghani’s Why Has Islam Become Weak 

Recommended reading list: 

-Nikki Keddie’s Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afhani 
--pay particular attention to Chapter 6 (pg. 129-142)

Discussion questions: 

-What is it that Afghani sees as the cause for the decline of Islam?
-What does he critique about materialists? 
-What does he suggest Muslims do to end the decline of Islam? 

Works cited:

Ahmad, Aziz. “Sayyid ahmad Khan, Jamal al-din al-Afghani and Muslim India.” Studia
Islamica, No. 13 (1960), pp. 55-78. Aslan, Reza. (2006). No god but God. New York: Random
House. H—ir-, Abdul-H-d-. “Afghani on the Decline of Islam.” Die Welt des Islams, New Ser.,
Vol. 13, Issue ½ (1971), pp. 121-125. Keddie, Nikki. (1972). Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani.
Berkeley: University of California Press. Malik, Hafeez. “Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s Doctrines
of Muslim Nationalism and National Progress.” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1968), p.
221-244 www.cis-ca.org/voices/a/afghni-mn.htm. pp. 1-7

Pan-Islamism

Jamal Al-din Al-afghani

Born in Persia, not Afghanistan as his name suggests, al-Afghani led the life of an itinerant scholar and activist. After his initial education in Persia, he studied in India and then worked in Afghanistan, Istanbul, Egypt, and Paris. Al-Afghani's travels provided
him with a unique insight into the modern condition affecting all Muslim peoples, a condition he believed was characterized by political weakness, social instability, and cultural ignorance. Contact with the West did not cause this condition, according to al-
Afghani, but it did bring it into high relief; it also alerted Muslims to an essential but long-dormant element of their own tradition: rational thought. For al-Afghani, the power and success of the modern West rested on its rejection of the stultifying restrictions
of Christianity and its turn toward reason; since Islam, by contrast, was rooted in rationalism, Muslims need only return to the essence of their faith to overcome the developmental asymmetry that had come to differentiate Western and Muslim societies.

Arguing for the rational nature of Islam was a common strategy among Muslim reformers, who wanted to facilitate change while maintaining cultural identity. It was a strategy that recognized the Western orientation of modern development and the threat this
orientation posed to cultural authenticity in the Muslim world. Indeed al-Afghani believed that social and political change could only be brought about if Muslims had a firm sense of the civilization to which Islam had given birth. By  civilization, al-Afghani
meant the intellectual and moral achievements that contributed to the unity and greatness of a people—a notion he borrowed from the French statesman-historian François Guizot (1787–1874) and employed to foster a usable Islamic past. This past did not lead
inexorably to the unification of the entire Muslim community (the umma) under a single Islamic state. Instead, al-Afghani viewed Islamic civilization, the foundation of pan-Islamism, as a common cultural stream that fed the national political aspirations of
such distinct countries as India, Persia, and Egypt. Here the logical appeal of Islam as universal glue for all Muslim peoples was subordinated to the practical realities of a world where nation-states had become the political norm. Pan-Islamism, however, had
served a very different political purpose under the Ottomans

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