Ali Khan Mahmudabad

Ali Khan Mahmudabad in his library

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, (born December 2, 1978), is an Indian historian, political scientist, poet, writer, and assistant professor in the dual fields of history and political science at Ashoka University.^[1] Writing under the pen name of Ali Khan Mahmudabad, he has a column in Urdu for the national daily The Inquilab in India. He also writes regularly for a number of online and print publications, including the Caravan Magazine,^[2] The Indian Express,^[3] Times of India,^[4] The Outlook Magazine,^[5] Hindustan Times, Business Standard,^[6] Daily News and Analysis,^[7] Tehelka magazine^[8] and The Sunday Guardian in India. He also writes for a number of publications from other parts of the world like The Guardian,^[9] The Straits Times,^[10] Huffington Post,^[11] and OpenDemocracy. His writings focus on political, social, economic and security issues amongst others in South Asia and the Middle East.

Ali grew up in Mahmudabad, India. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College where he graduated with a double major in history and political science in the year 2006. Following this he studied advanced level Arabic from the University of Damascus. By 2010, he had earned an MPhil in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge (Girton College, Cambridge), and by 2014, he also secured his PhD in history from Cambridge. His dissertation was on “Rhetorics and Spaces of Belonging among North Indian Muslims, 1850- 1950” under supervision of Professor Sir Christopher Bayly and Professor Javed Majeed.

He also spends time lecturing in schools, colleges and universities as well as advising policy think-tanks on a wide range of subjects including political, religious and security related issues in South Asia as well as greater West Asia (the Middle East). In 2010, he received the Lewis Carroll Commager Fellowship from Amherst College. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Urdu, Awadhi, Arabic, Persian and French. In 2017, he joined the Samajwadi Party.

Early life

Ali did his schooling up until the 5th grade from La Martiniere Lucknow, following which he went to England to study at King's College School till 1996. He graduated school from Winchester College in the year 2001 and in 2002 he enrolled himself at Amherst College. At Amherst, he was in the Varsity Squash Team and has previously been a winner of the Division 3 Squash Tournament of New England. He graduated from Amherst, Magna cum Laude, with his thesis paper on 'Iran and the evolution of Velayat-e-faqih Islamic Jurisprudence'. In college he also used to play the saxophone besides writing poetry.

Education

His PhD at Cambridge focused on the formation of Muslim political identity in North India between 1850-1950. In particular the thesis presented a history of the public space of poetry (the Mushaira) and a genealogy of the idea of homeland (watan) over these hundred years. Some of the other subjects relevant to his thesis are ideas of citizenship, patriotism, global Muslim identities and their relevance in the articulation and configuration of Muslim ideas of selfhood. Although he explores these primarily in the context of South Asia, most of these ideas are increasingly relevant in all parts of the Muslim world and a prominent part of debates around political reforms and public policy.

Before his PhD, he secured his MPhil, also from Cambridge. He wrote a thesis on trans-national Shi‘a Muslim networks in the early 20th century between South Asia and the Middle East which got published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society^[12] and became a part of the book: The Shi‘a in Modern South Asian.^[13]

Prior to going to Cambridge, Ali studied Arabic at the University of Damascus in Syria. In addition to attending classes at the university, he wrote extensively about Syria for various print and online newspapers and magazines and also travelled widely not only in Syria but also in Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen. Since then he has undertaken research and travelled more extensively in the wider region and has spent substantial time in Iran and Iraq amongst other places.^[1] His travels have led to him writing for publications such as the National Geographic (magazine).

Works

Besides being a columnist for Sahāfat (Urdu newspaper)^[14] and Aalami Samay (Urdu magazine), Ali has also contributed to the following books:

• A Leaf Turns Yellow: the Sufis of Awadh: “Reliving a Sacrifice” ^[15]
• Lucknow: a city between cultures: “Lucknow: a binding legacy”^[16]
• The Shi‘a in Modern South Asian: “Local nodes of a trans-national network: a case study of a Shi‘i family in Awadh 1900- 1950”^[13]

References