#  Program in Islamic Law: BOOK TALK ON AFGHANISTAN RISING: ISLAMIC LAW AND STATECRAFT BETWEEN THE OTTOMAN AND BRITISH EMPIRES 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **February 6, 2019** 

 12:00PM - 01:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop 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>.

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Harvard Event ](/events/harvard-event)
- [ Central Asia ](/region/central-asia)
- [ Harvard Law School ](/schools/harvard-law-school)
 
 

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