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Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897)

His full name, Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani as-Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Safdar (also Saftar) al-Husayn (also called Asadabadi), was a great Muslim thinker, remarkable writer and politician. Many people regard him as a muslih (reformist). While he was anti-colonialist, he was also against many Muslim leaders and even scholars whom he regarded as corrupt. He believed in constitutional-based government rather than monarchy. His activities were widespread, and he spoke seven languages fluently. Indeed, he was the father of modern renaissance in Islam.

Born 1838, there is no accurate information about the birth place of al-Afghani. The reason for this dispute is that there is no book written about his early life and that he was actively working within both sides of the two major divisions of Islam, Sunni and Shiite during his life time. Some scholars believe that he was an Iranian born in Hamadan and that he had his early education in Iran and then in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in Iraq. Others believe that he was born in Afghanistan, because of the name (al-Afghani) he adopted and by which he is known. Furthermore, his brother claimed that al-Afghani was born in Kunar, a place near Kabul where his family continues to live. The strongest evidence that he was born in Afghanistan and following the Sunni school is the observation of his student, Muhammad Abduh that his madhhab was Hanafee and that he was interested in tasawwuf (Islamic mystic).

Al-Afghani is known to have travelled to many countries; the first country he visited was India at the age of eighteen, after he had mastered Islamic studies, philosophy and science in Afghanistan. In India, he learnt the Hindi language and European teachings (India was occupied by the British). Subsequently, he went to Mecca to perform the fifth pillar of Islam, al-hajj (pilgrimage). While he was there, he met many scholars of Islam and started to gain Islamic knowledge from them. In November 1866, al-Afghani appeared in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The country in that time was ruled by Shir Ali Khan, the third son of Dost Mohammad Khan who seized power after the death of his father in June 1863, and Dost Mohammad Khan was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty of Afghanistan. However, Shir Ali Khan was threatened by his two Brothers, Mohammad Afzal Khan and Mohammad Azam Khan over his tenure. In January 1867 Shir Ali Khan was defeated and his brother Mohammad Azam Khan came to power, Azam reigned over Afghanistan successively from 1867 to 1868, and al-Afghani immediately became his Confidential Counsellor and then the First Minister. He remained in this position until Azam was defeated by Shir Ali who succeeded in regaining his throne in September 1868. Al-Afghani was later expelled from the territory after Shir Ali Khan became suspicious of him. For a short period, he visited India again. He was honoured by the Indian government, but his activities were controlled and monitored.

Al-Afghani next went to Istanbul in 1879/70, under the reign of Sultan Abdul Aziz Ibn Mahmood II and became an officer until he was slandered and forced to leave the country in 1871. This was the beginning of an important period of his life, in Cairo, Egypt, he discovered many Islamist followers, among them were the following; Muhammad Abduh, who was to become the leader of the modernist movement in Islam and the Sheikh-ul-Azhar, then Saad Zaghlul Bin Ibrahim, founder of the Egyptian Wafd Party who finally became the Prime Minister of Egypt. However, his advanced religious views created controversy with the conservative theologians as well as his political opponents, the British. By August 1879 he was expelled from Egypt by Khedive Ismail’s son and successor, Khedive Tewfik.

For the third time he returned to India, and wrote “al-Radd ‘ala al-Addhriyyin” (The Refutation of the Materialist). While he was in India, the Urabi Revolt broke up in Egypt. Led by Ahmad Urabi in 1881, the Urabi Revolt unsteadied the Egyptian government and forced it to seek help from the British. By 1882, the British occupied Egypt, captured Urabi and exiled him to the British colony of Ceylon.

Al-Afghani subsequently went to Hyderabad and Calcutta, and then via London he went to Paris in 1883, where he met his former student who was exiled from Egypt for his participation in the Urabi Revolt against the Turkish officers and of course the British. Together with Abduh, he published an anti-British journal, al-‘urwat al-Wuthqa (The Indissoluble Link), aiming at arousing Muslims against Western colonies. The British then banned the journal in1884 after eighteen issues.

From Paris, al-Afghani went to London due to the uprising of the Mahdi group (and then government) in Sudan. As a result of being unable to obtain an agreement with the British, he went to Saint Petersburg, the former capital of the Russian Empire for four years in 1889. He stayed a short time in Munich, Germany, where he met Nasaruddin Shah (the Shah of Iran), who was interested in his intelligence and his fluent Persian, thus, he invited him to Iran. The Shah sent him to Moscow as the ambassador of Iran. During his stay in Russia, he made a deal with the Russian intellectuals and Tsars to publish Qur’an in Russian language.

After the period of ambassadorship, the Shah recalled him for service as a minister in Iran. Nevertheless, his reforming zeal antagonised the Shah. Al-Afghani then left the Ministry and spent his time in a mosque for seven months (the Iranians liked him), writing to Iranian newspapers about the Shah’s less than adequate policy, until the Shah sent a group of army to force him out of Iran in 1892.

There followed another brief visit to Basra in Iraq, and then to London. While he was in London, he began his campaign against the Shah and published his “Splendour of the Two Hemispheres”. The Shah sought help from Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of Ottoman Empire to invite al-Afghani to Constantinople (Istanbul) and successfully stopped him from his campaign. However, al-Afghani’s campaign was playing a strong role among the Iranians against the Shah. In 1890/91, the Tobacco Protest occurred in Iran after the Shah granted a tobacco concession to a British Company; a fatwa that farming and consuming tobacco is “haram” was issued by Mirza Reza Shirazi, a Shiite cleric.

In Istanbul, Khedive Abbas Hilmi of Egypt came to visit al-Afghani. This caused the Sultan became suspicious on him, but al-Afghani explained that the meeting was away from any political interests. On May the 1st 1896, the Shah was assassinated by a follower of al-Afghani. As a result, the Sultan imprisoned al-Afghani when the news of the Shah’s assassination emerged. Iranian officials demanded for al-Afghani’s extradition for his involvement in the assassination, but the Sultan refused to extradite him. Al-Afghani spent his life under the surveillance of Sultan Abdul Hamid II until his death in 9 March 1897. He was buried in Istanbul.

Bibliography:

1- Ali Rahnema, Pioneers of Islamic Revival: Zed books Ltd, London and New Jersey, 1994.
2- Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939: Cambridge 1948.
3- H.A.R.Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam: Octagon books Ltd, New York 1978.
4- Al-Hashimi, Abdul Mun’im, al-Khilafat al-Uthmaaniyyah: Dar Ibn Hazm, Beirut, 2004 (Arabic).
5- Al-Zerekly, al-A’lam Bibliographical Dictionary: Dar al-Ilm Lilmalayin, Beirut, 1999 (Arabic).
6- Ali Abdul Haleem, Ruknu at-Thabaat: Dar Tauzi’, Cairo, 1997 (Arabic).
7- Ali Abdul Haleem, Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani: Dar Ikazd, Cairo, 1980 (Arabic).
8- The New Encyclopaedia Britannica.
9- Encyclopaedia of Religion, second edition: Lindsay Jones,

Sources from internet:
http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/a/afghni.htm (12/04/06)
http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/jamal_ad.htm (12/04/06)
http://www.ummigroup.co.id/annida/cetak.php?id=104 (Malay-13/04/06)
http://www.islamonline.net/Arabic/history/1422/12/article20.shtml (Arabic-13/04/06)

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