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-[[File:Sayyid Dschamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Jamāl-al-dīn Asadābādī.]]
-'''Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn al-Afghānī''' ({{lang-fa|سید جمال الدین الافغاني}}; actually ''Sayyid Muḥammad ibn Ṣafdar Husaynī Asadābādī'' -سید محمد بن صفدر حسینی اسدآبادی)(born 1838<ref name="Britannica">Britannica Encyclopædia, Online Edition 2007 - [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368411 link]</ref> - died March 9, 1897) was a political activist and Islamic nationalist active in [[Qajar dynasty|Qajarid Persia]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Egypt]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the 19th century. One of the founders of Islamic modernism,<ref name=PROFILE>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Afghani.html Jamal al-Din al-Afghani] Jewish Virtual Library</ref> and an advocate of pan-Islamic unity,<ref>Ludwig W. Adamec, ''Historical Dictionary of Islam'' (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001), p. 32</ref> he has been described as "less interested in theology than he was in organizing a Muslim response to Western pressure."<ref>Vali Nasr, ''The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future'' (New York: Norton, 2006), p. 103.</ref>
-== Early life==
-Jamāl-al-dīn was born in the village of [[Asadābād]], near [[Hamadān]], [[Iran]], into a family of local [[sayyed]]s.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Iranica">N.R. Keddie, ''"Afghāni, Jamāl al-dīn"'', [[Encyclopædia Iranica]], [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v1f5/v1f5a038.html Online Edition 2005-2007]</ref>
-Although some older sources claim that Jamal al-Din was born in a district of [[Kunar Province]] in Afghanistan also called [[Asadabad, Afghanistan|Asadabad]],<ref>''From Reform to Revolution'', Louay Safi, Intellectual Discourse 1995, Vol. 3, No. 1 [http://lsinsight.org/articles/1998_Before/Reform.htm LINK]</ref><ref>Historia, ''Le vent de la révolte souffle au Caire'', [[Baudouin Eschapasse]], [http://www.historia.presse.fr/data/thematique/105/10502401.html LINK]</ref> overwhelming documentation (especially a collection of papers left in Iran upon his expulsion in 1891) now proves he was born in 1838 in [[Iran]]. He spent his [[childhood]] there and was brought up as a [[Shia]] Muslim.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Iranica"/><ref>N. R. Keddie, ''"Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography"'', Berkeley, 1972</ref> 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 [[Shia|Shi'ite]] shrine cities in [[Iraq]].<ref name="Iranica" /> It is thought that followers of Shia revivalist [[Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i]] had an influence on him.<ref>Edward Mortimer, ''Faith and Power'', Vintage, (1982)p.110</ref> An [[Persian people|ethnic Persian]], Jamal-al-Din claimed to be an [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] in order to present himself as a [[Sunni]] Muslim <ref>Edward Mortimer, ''Faith and Power'', Vintage, (1982)p.110</ref><ref name="Kramer">[http://books.google.com/books?id=SRkTJCcyn00C&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=kramer+al-afghani&source=bl&ots=17FMWFJMcG&sig=JxEgQwqt9BCy24w0Lac2WTPQj98&hl=en&ei=PpXrSYjOBovGMtnWme4F&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Arab awakening and Islamic revival By Martin S. Kramer]</ref> and to escape oppression by the Iranian ruler [[Naser al-Din Shah Qajar|Nāṣer ud-Dīn Shāh]].<ref name="Iranica" />
-== Political activism==
-[[File:Asadabadi square, Tehran2.JPG|250px|right|thumb|"Asadabadi square" in [[Tehran]], [[Iran]].]]
-In 1857, Jamal al-Din 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 Afzal Khan|Mohammad Azam]]. At that time he encouraged the king to turn to Russians and to oppose the British. However, he did not encouraged Mohammad Azam to any reformist ideologies that later attributed to Jamal al-Din. <ref name="Iranica">Nikki Keddi, AFḠĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN, Encyclopedia Iranica</ref> In 1859 a British spy reported that Jamal Al-Din is a possible Russian agent. The British representatives reported that he wears traditional cloths of Noghai Turks in Central Asia, speaks fluently Persian, Arabic and Turkish. <ref name="Astane"> Molefi K. Asante, Culture and customs of Egypt, Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0313317402, 9780313317408, Page 137</ref> Reports from the British Government in India and Afghani government say that he was a stranger in Afghanistan, spoke Persian with Iranian accent and followed European life style more than that of Muslims, not observing [[Ramadan]] or other Muslim rites. <ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="Astane"/> In 1868, the throne of Kabul was occupied by [[Sher Ali Khan]], and Jamal al-Din was forced to leave the country.<ref name="Iranica"/>
-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]]<ref>Albert Hourani, ''Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age'' (Cambridge: Cambride UP, 1983), pp. 131-2</ref>.
-In 1871, Jamal al-Din 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, he began publishing an Arabic newspaper in Paris entitled al-Urwah al-Wuthqa ("The Indissoluble Link"<ref name="Britannica"/>) 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, he argued, would allow the Islamic community to regain its former strength against European powers.
-Jamal al-Din was invited by [[Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar|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 Empire|Ottoman]] [[Mesopotamia]], and evicted from Iran. Although Jamal al-Din quarreled with most of his patrons, it is said he "reserved his strongest hatred for the shah," whom he accused of weakening Islam by granting [[Concession (contract)|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 [[Tobacco Protest|protest against]] the granting a tobacco monopoly  to a British company, and the later 1905 [[Iranian Constitutional Revolution|Constitutional Revolution]].<ref>Roy Mottahedeh, ''The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran'' (Oxford: One World, 2000), pp. 183-4</ref>
-== Political and religious views==
-Jamal al-Din's ideology has been described as a welding of "traditional" religious antipathy toward unbelievers "to a modern critique of [[Western world|Western]] [[imperialism]] and an appeal for the unity of Islam", urging the adoption of those Western sciences and institutions that might strengthen Islam.<ref name="Kramer">[http://books.google.com/books?id=SRkTJCcyn00C&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=kramer+al-afghani&source=bl&ots=17FMWFJMcG&sig=JxEgQwqt9BCy24w0Lac2WTPQj98&hl=en&ei=PpXrSYjOBovGMtnWme4F&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Arab awakening and Islamic revival By Martin S. Kramer]</ref>
-Although called a liberal by a contemporary English admirer, [[Wilfrid Scawen Blunt]],<ref> Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, ''Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt'' (London: Unwin, 1907), p. 100.</ref> Jamal al-Din 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. Jamal al-Din simply envisioned “the overthrow of individual rulers who were lax or subservient to foreigners, and their replacement by strong and patriotic men.”<ref>Nikki R. Keddie, ''Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 225-26.</ref>
-According to another source Jamal al-Din 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. <ref>Ervand Abrahamian, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 62-3</ref>
-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'') <ref>Albert Hourani, ''Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age'' (Cambridge: Cambride UP, 1983), pp. 104-125</ref>.
-In 1881 he published a collection of polemics titled ''Al-Radd 'ala al-Dahriyyi'' (Refutation of the Materialists), agitating for pan-Islamic unity against Western Imperialism. It included one of the earliest pieces of Islamic thought arguing against [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s then-recent [[On the Origin of Species]]; however, the ideas attributed to evolution are sufficiently caricatured as to strongly argue he had not himself read Darwin's writings at the time.<ref>The Comparative Reception of Darwinism, edited by Thomas Glick, ISBN 0226299775</i></ref> In his later work ''Khatirat Jamal al-Din al-Afghani'' (The Ideas of al-Afghani), he admitted that the validity of the principle of selection, claiming it had been long known and used by the Islamic world. However, while accepting transitions from non-living matter to plants (Abiogenesis), and plant to animal, he rejected the transition from Ape to Man due to the question of the soul.<ref>ibid.</ref>
-Among the reasons why Jamal al-Din 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 (despite the fact that he was very interested in political unity between the two groups),<ref>Nasr, ''The Shia Revival'', p.103</ref> and his failure to marry. He is said to have "picked up female companionship when he wanted it without any show of religious scruples."<ref>Mottahedeh, ''The Mantle of the Prophet'', p. 184</ref>.
-==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.
-Today in Iran he is honored as a revolutionary Islamic thinker and a national hero. There is a square named after him in Tehran.
-==References==
-{{Reflist|2}}
-== Further reading ==
-{{wikiquote}}
-*[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].
-*[[Iraj Bashiri|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<http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9043289>.
-*[[Nikki Ragozin Keddie|Keddie, Nikki Ragozin]]. ''Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani: A Political biography''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
-*{{cite book|author=[[William Montgomery Watt|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).
-==External links==
-*[http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v1f5/v1f5a038.html Jamal-Al-Din Afghani], a comprehensive article in Encyclopedia Iranica.
-*[http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/a/afghni.htm Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani], a biography.
-*[http://www.thecommentfactory.com/al-afghanis-response-to-imperialism-2178 Al-Afghani’s Response to Imperialism] by Richard Seymour, May 11 2009
-</br>
-{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din}}
-[[Category:Al-Nahda]]
-[[Category:1838 births]]
-[[Category:1897 deaths]]
-[[Category:Afghan Muslims]]
-[[Category:Iranian activists]]
-[[Category:Muslim activists]]
-[[Category:19th-century philosophers]]
-[[ar:جمال الدين الأفغاني]]
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