Portrait of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

Political activist and Islamic ideologist

Lived
1839–1897
Country
Afghanistan

Updated September 2026

About Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, also known as Jamāl ad-Dīn Asadābādī and commonly known as Al-Afghani, was a political activist and Islamic ideologist who travelled throughout the Muslim world during the late 19th century. He is one of the founders of Islamic Modernism as well as an advocate of Pan-Islamic unity in India against the British.

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.