Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre at LUMS

I am a scholar of Islamic intellectual history with a keen interest in how premodern Islamic traditions relate to the present. In my research, I am interested in premodern traditions of Islamic historiography as well as their reception in modern Muslim societies, particularly in colonial and postcolonial South Asia. I examine the construction, repetition, and re-working of historical narratives in the interest of varied cultural projects in Muslim societies. I am currently working on a book manuscript based on my PhD dissertation titled, “Ibn Khaldūn: His Idea of History and its Reception in South Asia.” This study re-examines the ideas of the historian and theorist ‘Abd al-Raḥmāṉ Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) in the context of medieval commentarial traditions. Additionally, it questions the scholarly consensus on the reception of Ibn Khaldūn’s ideas in modern South Asia. 

My teaching covers a broad range of subjects, including the traditions of philosophy, theology, Sufism, and historiography in the Muslim world. By critiquing contemporary representations of these traditions, I aim to illuminate the past and provide means of addressing present challenges. 

 “Ibn Khaldūn’s Reception in Colonial South Asia” (forthcoming with the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society)
"Understanding Scriptural Citations in Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddimah." Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society 34.02 (2021): 31–43. http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/HistoryPStudies/PDF_Files/02-v34_2_2021.pdf
“Kalām in a Post-Traditional World: Shiblī Nu’mānī’s Construction of Authority in  ‘Ilmul-Kalām and al-Kalām.” Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies, Changing Muslim Narratives in Colonial India, 3, no. 2 (2018): 43–79. https://doi.org/10.2979/pjhs.3.2.02. Published by Indiana University Press.