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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Answer Al-afghani's Nationality the nationality of sayyid-jamal al-din al-husaini al- afghani ( 1838-1897) is a matter of debate among scholars, whether he was actually an iranian or an afghani.

as one scholar says, "this disagreement over al-afghani's connection to afghan is one of the strangest things, inspite of the fact that he lived in our era and in our areas and his works are before eyes." none of these scholars, muslims or non-muslims, discuss the question of afghani's nationality in relation to his ideology (the pan islamic policy ) which he spent all of his life for as once he said: " i have no aim except to grant every assistance to reform muslim's life.

i hope that my blood, like the blood of any other martyr, will serve in this way." that is why he related himself to different regions. his signature appeared in connection of his documents more often as ( jamal al-din al- hussaini ) indicating his lineage to imam al-hussain , the grandson of prophet muhammad (p.). also his signature appears as follows " al-istanbuli, al-asad , al-afghani , al-kabuli, al-rummi, and al-tusi ". ( see : asnad sayyid jamal al-din by afshar, tehran).

in order to answer the question about al-afghani's nationality affiliation, we must first answer the following questions: why did he present himself with nicknamed relating himself to different nations? why he did not present himself as an iranian at all? why did he more often present himself as al-afghani when referred to nationality? i. there are several factors which show that al-afghani's intentionally related himself to several nations. this fact was not an accident.

it was most likely that he wanted to display his ideology of muslim's unity and pan islamic policy. therefore he claimed nationality in several islamic countries but not, at all, to any non islamic lands. inspite of the fact that he lived in europe for a long tome, he did not claim to be a citizen of any european country such as england or france, the two european countries in which he lived for a long time.

inspite of the fact that he had a great effect on iranian policy, he did not present himself as an iranian. it is legitimate to believe that because of his political activities, he wanted to avoid any authorities of the iranian government which could have lead to his extradition as an iranian citizen through the local government wherever al-afghani went. al-afghani presented himself as an afghani.