ment of 100 lashes for adulterers. Some hadith
accounts go on to specify that this punishment is
reserved for unmarried adulterers, while married
adulterers are to be stoned to death. The Quran
(Q 4:15) insists that four eye witnesses must
confirm the act of adultery in order to execute
punishment, since unsubstantiated accusations
of adultery are an almost equally grave matter.
The Quran (Q 24:4) states that anyone who insti-
gates a charge of adultery without the required
evidence of four witnesses is punishable by 80
lashes. Because of these stringent requirements of
proof, punishment for adultery is rarely executed,
although Muslim authorities have tried to enforce
it in some modern Muslim countries.
See also crime and pUnishment; divorce; slav-
ery; Women.
Aysha A. HidayatullahFurther reading: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in
Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); Abdelwahab Bouh-
diba, Sexuality in Islam. Translated by Alan Sheridan
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Noel J.
Couslon, “Regulation of Sexual Behavior under Tradi-
tional Islamic Law.” In Society and the Sexes in Medieval
Islam, edited by Afaf Lufti al-Sayyid-Marsot (Malibu,
Calif.: Undena, 1979).
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al- (1838–1897)
leading advocate for Islamic revivalism and Muslim
solidarity against European imperialism in the
19th century
Some uncertainty surrounds the origins of Muslim
writer, philosopher, and political activist Jamal
al-Din al-Afghani, whose name indicates he was
from aFghanistan but whose real homeland most
scholars identify as Persia, or modern-day iran.
Born into a Shii family of sayyids (descendants of
mUhammad), al-Afghani spent his life traveling and
teaching in india, the Middle East, and Europe.
His main objective was to inspire and organize
a pan-Islamic movement to strengthen Muslims’
resistance to the expansion of European, specifi-
cally British, power around the world. Among his
many prominent disciples were mUhammad abdUh
(d. 1905), with whom he published a newspaper
(al-Urwa al-Wuthqa, strongest link) in 1884, and
Saad Zaghloul (d. 1927), who later led Egypt’s
independence movement. His major work was a
treatise on the role of reason in understanding
divine revelation titled al-Radd ala al-Dahiriyyin
(Reply to the materialists). Many consider him the
father of Muslim nationalism.
Al-Afghani’s early education in Iran was in
theology and Islamic philosophy, particularly that
of abU ali al-hUssein ibn sina (Latin: Avicenna, d.
1037)). As a youth, he studied modern sciences
and mathematics in India, where he witnessed
firsthand the detrimental political and social
effects of British imperialism. This contributed to
his view that Muslims needed to band together
to defend themselves. Muslim solidarity and a
revitalized Islam, one that integrated the best of
technology and science with traditional Islamic
values, were essential if Muslims were to regain
control of their lands. He enthusiastically pro-
moted a role for rational interpretation (ijtihad) in
understanding Islam, a position he debated with
European intellectuals, such as Ernest Renan (d.
1892), and Muslim clerics alike.
Al-Afghani’s career took him to many coun-
tries and into the service of many Muslim gov-
ernments, including the Ottoman sultan Abd
al-Hamid (r. 1806–1909) and Persia’s Shah Nasir
al-Din (r. 1848–96). However, this did not keep
him from directing his criticisms at his patrons,
whom he saw as extensions or at least facilita-
tors of European influence in the Middle East.
He advocated constitutionalism as a way to check
autocratic power, criticized the tanzimat reforms
in Turkey, and initiated the popular agitation that
led to the Tobacco Protests of 1891–92 against
British concessions in Persia. In 1896, Nasir
al-Din was assassinated by one of al-Afghani’s
followers, leaving the latter to live out his daysK 14 Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-