in Istanbul under the distrustful surveillance of
the sultan. Al-Afghani’s influence was seminal
to the development of Muslim nationalism and
Islamic modernism and to the lives of men such as
Muhammad Abduh, mUhammad rashid rida (d.
1935), mUhammad iqbal (d. 1938), and mUham-
mad ali Jinnah (d. 1948), who would carry the
Islamic reform movement forward in the 20th
century.
See also constitUtional revolUtion; pan-
islamism; reneWal and reForm movements;
salaFism.
Michelle ZimneyFurther reading: Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the
Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (London: Oxford University
Press, 1970); Nikki R Keddie, An Islamic Response to
Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid
Jamal al-Din “al-Afghani” (Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1983).
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is a mountainous landlocked coun-
try with an area of 647,500 sq. km. (comparable
in size to the state of Texas) and an estimated
population of 32.7 million in 2008. It is situated
on the frontier between the Middle East, Central
Asia, and South Asia, with iran on its western
border and pakistan on its eastern and southern
borders. A large majority of its people are Sunni
Muslim (80 percent), but there are also Shii Mus-
lims (19 percent) and followers of other religions
(1 percent). Religious life consists of a mixture of
folk religion, sUFism, and formal Islamic doctrine
and practice. Ethnic and tribal loyalties are often
stronger than religious and national ones. The
major ethnic groups are Pashtun (42 percent, also
called Afghans), Tajik (27 percent), Hazara (9
percent), and Uzbek (9 percent). Pushtu and Dari
(the Afghani Persian dialect) are Afghanistan’s
official languages, but there are more than 30 lan-
guages and dialects spoken there, most of which
belong to the Indo-European and Turkic language
families. Its major cities are Kabul (the capital),
Qandahar, and Herat, but most of the population
still lives in the countryside.
Because of its location, the Afghanistan region
has been a crossroads for peoples, merchandise,
and empires for centuries. The Arab Muslim
armies that arrived in the seventh century were
following the routes used previously by Persian
and Greek invaders, but none of these empires,
or the nearly 20 empires and dynasties that came
later, found Afghanistan easy to conquer and
control. The Afghan peoples, though internally
divided, tend to unite in fierce opposition to out-
siders. Islamic rule was not secure there until the
late 10th century, when it became the seat of the
Ghaznavid dynasty (977–1163), which also gov-
erned eastern Iran and launched a series of raids
into northern india. Afghanistan then succumbed
to invasions by Turks and Mongols during the
13th and 14th centuries. The country’s strategic
location continued to make it a focal point of
conflict between Muslim rulers in Iran and India
from the 15th to 18th centuries and a target for
the imperial ambitions of Russia and Great Brit-
ain in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite
its turbulent history, medieval Afghanistan saw
moments of significant religious and cultural
achievement, reflected in its role in the exten-
sion of Islamicate architectural forms to India
and sponsorship of Firdowsi’s Persian epic, the
Shahnama (ca. 980), and the scientific writings
of abU rayhan al-birUni (973–1048). In addition
to being the base from which Muslims invaded
northern India, Afghanistan was the birthplace
of several important Sufi masters, including ibra-
him ibn adham (d. 778) and Jalal al-din rUmi
(1207–73), and it witnessed the emergence of two
of the most important Sufi orders: the chishti sUFi
order and the naqshbandi sUFi order.
Afghanistan became a modern independent
country in 1919 and evolved into a constitu-
tional monarchy under the influence of the Soviet
Union. After fighting off an armed Soviet invasionAfghanistan 15 J