Date:
Wednesday, February 6, 2019, 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location:
Austin 102
LUNCH TALK :: BOOK TALK ON AFGHANISTAN RISING: ISLAMIC LAW AND STATECRAFT BETWEEN THE
OTTOMAN AND BRITISH EMPIRES (HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2017)
Feb 6 | 12.00-1.00p | Austin 102
Author: FAIZ AHMED, Associate Professor of History, Brown University
Moderator: Mariam Sheibani, Visiting Fellow, Program in Islamic Law (PIL), Harvard Law
School
Respondent: Malika Zeghal, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic
Thought and Life
In Afghanistan Rising, Faiz Ahmed presents a vibrant account of Afghanistan, the first Muslimmajority
country to gain independence, codify its own laws, and ratify a constitution after the
fall of the Ottoman Empire. He illustrates how turn-of-the-twentieth-century Kabul—far from
being a landlocked wilderness or remote frontier—became a magnet for itinerant scholars
and administrators shuttling between Ottoman and British imperial domains. Tracing the
country’s longstanding but often ignored scholarly and educational ties to Baghdad,
Damascus, and Istanbul as well as greater Delhi and Lahore, Ahmed explains how the court of
Kabul attracted thinkers eager to craft a modern state within the interpretive traditions of
Islamic law and ethics, or shariʿa, and international norms of legality. Beginning with the
Ottoman Empire’s first mission to Kabul in 1877, this rich narrative focuses on encounters
between divergent streams of modern Muslim thought and politics—from Turkish lawyers to
Pashtun clerics; Ottoman Arab officers to British Indian bureaucrats; and the last caliphs to an
extraordinary dynasty of Afghan kings and queens. By unearthing a lost history behind
Afghanistan’s founding national charter, Ahmed shows how debates today on Islam,
governance, and the rule of law have deep roots in a beleaguered land. Faiz Ahmed is
Associate Professor of History at Brown University. Trained as a lawyer and social historian,
he specializes in legal and constitutional history in the late Ottoman Empire, modern Middle
East, and South-Central Asia. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to PIL@law.harvard.edu.
OTTOMAN AND BRITISH EMPIRES (HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2017)
Feb 6 | 12.00-1.00p | Austin 102
Author: FAIZ AHMED, Associate Professor of History, Brown University
Moderator: Mariam Sheibani, Visiting Fellow, Program in Islamic Law (PIL), Harvard Law
School
Respondent: Malika Zeghal, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic
Thought and Life
In Afghanistan Rising, Faiz Ahmed presents a vibrant account of Afghanistan, the first Muslimmajority
country to gain independence, codify its own laws, and ratify a constitution after the
fall of the Ottoman Empire. He illustrates how turn-of-the-twentieth-century Kabul—far from
being a landlocked wilderness or remote frontier—became a magnet for itinerant scholars
and administrators shuttling between Ottoman and British imperial domains. Tracing the
country’s longstanding but often ignored scholarly and educational ties to Baghdad,
Damascus, and Istanbul as well as greater Delhi and Lahore, Ahmed explains how the court of
Kabul attracted thinkers eager to craft a modern state within the interpretive traditions of
Islamic law and ethics, or shariʿa, and international norms of legality. Beginning with the
Ottoman Empire’s first mission to Kabul in 1877, this rich narrative focuses on encounters
between divergent streams of modern Muslim thought and politics—from Turkish lawyers to
Pashtun clerics; Ottoman Arab officers to British Indian bureaucrats; and the last caliphs to an
extraordinary dynasty of Afghan kings and queens. By unearthing a lost history behind
Afghanistan’s founding national charter, Ahmed shows how debates today on Islam,
governance, and the rule of law have deep roots in a beleaguered land. Faiz Ahmed is
Associate Professor of History at Brown University. Trained as a lawyer and social historian,
he specializes in legal and constitutional history in the late Ottoman Empire, modern Middle
East, and South-Central Asia. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to PIL@law.harvard.edu.