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Abdullah al-Ahsan

Historian of civilizations

Human dignity and the fate of civilizations.

The clash of civilizations is a choice, not a fate. Dignity and dialogue are the alternative.

Across more than three decades of teaching and research, Abdullah al-Ahsan has examined how societies cohere, how institutions carry moral ideas, how civilizations encounter one another, and what happens when dignity gives way to domination.

Civilizations are born and progress when they recognize and practice human dignity, and they decline and fall when they stop.

Read the four categories Browse the writing archive Invite or interview
5books
50+publications listed in CV
1990–2020university teaching
PhDHistory · Michigan
IIUM · Şehir · Cauxselected institutions

Start here

Seven pieces to read first.

  1. Dialogue and truth

    The Socratic Republic: Dialectic, Sophistry and the Quest for Universal Truth at 250

    Essay · Pegasus, Caux Round Table · June 2026

  2. Hope

    Hope Under the Shadow of Darkness

    Essay · Pegasus, Caux Round Table · February 2024

  3. Civilizational foundations

    The Ziggurat and the Foundations of Civilization: Religion, Authority, Justice, and Stewardship in Ancient Mesopotamia

    Essay · IslamiCity · August 2026

  4. Good governance

    Ma’at: The Moral Ideal of Good Governance and the Realities of Political Power in Ancient Egypt

    Essay · IslamiCity · August 2026

  5. The Muslim world today

    From the Mecca Program of 2005 to the “Mecca Defense Agreement” of 2026: Has the Muslim World Moved from Civilizational Renewal to Regime Security?

    Analysis · Scheerpost · August 2026

  6. Palestine

    Assassinating Peace: How Bernadotte’s Murder Ended the Israel-Palestine Two-State Dream

    Essay · Informed Comment · September 2025

  7. The clash thesis

    Bernard Lewis: A Legacy of Knowledge but not Wisdom

    Audio essay · Middle East Monitor · June 2018

More articles

Newest first. The full selected archive, filterable by type, is on the writing page.

  1. August 2026

    History, Myth, and Miracle: Historical Methodology in Seeking Divine Guidance

    Essay · IslamiCity

  2. June 2026

    Finding Anchor in the Chaos: Why Worldview Literacy Must Be Part of the Undergraduate Curriculum

    Essay · IslamiCity

  3. May 2026

    Can the Davutoglu Middle Powers Plan Reopen Hormuz?

    Essay · Informed Comment

  4. May 2026

    That Time Iran Proposed a Dialogue of Civilizations instead of War

    Essay · Informed Comment

  5. March 2026

    Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence: Distinction, Dignity, and Complementarity

    Essay · IslamiCity

  6. October 2025

    Why the Meaning of Life Deserves a Place in the Undergraduate Curriculum

    Essay · IslamiCity

  7. October 2025

    Why the Saudi-Pakistan Bilateral Defense Pact is Unlikely to Revive Muslim Unity

    Essay · Informed Comment

  8. May 2025

    Appreciating the Gen Z of Bangladesh

    Analysis · IslamiCity

  9. August 2024

    Part 12: Netanyahu’s Reinterpretation of Civilizations and Barbarism

    Essay · IslamiCity

  10. June 2024

    Part 10: Samuel Huntington’s Faulty Justification of the Clash of Civilizations Thesis

    Essay · IslamiCity

  11. July 2021

    Post-Coronavirus World

    Essay · Pegasus, Caux Round Table

All selected writing →

The four categories

Four categories that recur across the published record. Each one below lists the work in which Professor al-Ahsan actually argues it, with the journal, publisher and year.

Governance

How moral commitments become law, institutions and accountable political order.

Dignity

Whose worth a society recognizes in public life, and what follows when recognition is withdrawn.

Cooperation

What becomes possible across civilizational difference, and what hardens when it fails.

Flourishing

What a civilization builds and sustains, and who decides whose achievement counts as history.

The four categories in full, with the questions they open →

Three books to begin with

A deliberately small starting shelf: identity, institutions, and governance. The full bibliography remains available in the writing archive.

1992

Ummah or Nation?

Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society

A central entry point into al-Ahsan’s long engagement with collective identity, the nation-state and the modern Muslim world.

WorldCatRelated writing

1988

The Organization of the Islamic Conference

Introduction to an Islamic Political Institution

An early institutional study that became part of a four-decade scholarly engagement with the OIC and Muslim-world institutions.

WorldCatRelated writing

2017

Qur'anic Guidance for Good Governance

A Contemporary Perspective

Co-edited with Stephen B. Young, this volume connects Qur'anic guidance to questions of governance, responsibility and moral order.

PublisherWorldCat

In progress: From Crisis to Catastrophe: Colonial Modernity and the Making of the Muslim World Today (working title).

Browse the complete writing archive →

Seminar

From Colonization to the Clash of Civilization

A full seminar from the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, 2019. It is the most direct way to hear the civilizational argument in Professor al-Ahsan’s own voice before moving into the written record.

Full seminar · 1 hr 22 min · video loads only when selected

Lectures & speaking Invite Professor al-Ahsan

Where the work sits

Roles and dates follow the curriculum vitae Professor al-Ahsan supplied for this site on 5 August 2026. Publication entries link to the publisher’s own record.

Faculty · 1990–2017 International Islamic University Malaysia Professor, History and Civilization; Deputy Dean at ISTAC, 2009–2015; Director of IIUM Press; editor of Intellectual Discourse Professor of Comparative Civilization · 2018–2020 Istanbul Şehir University Taught Globalization and the Muslim World; Europe and Islam; World Civilizations and Global Encounters Publisher · 2017 Palgrave Macmillan Qur’anic Guidance for Good Governance, co-edited with Stephen B. Young · DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57873-6 Peer-reviewed · 2008 Cambridge University Press “Law, Religion and Human Dignity in the Muslim World Today,” Journal of Law and Religion 24:2, 569–597 Fellow Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism Co-publisher, with IIUM Press, of Guidance for Good Governance, 2008 and 2013 editions Advisor American Bangladesh Foundation Public-facing fellowship and policy initiative Advisor Threads of Connection A public-history project on Muslims in the American story Public discussion · Washington, DC Center for Strategic and International Studies Panel on Qur’anic Guidance for Good Governance

Scholarly reception

Two reviews of Ummah or Nation from 1993, linked in full so the surrounding assessment can be read alongside the quotation.

“Abdullah al-Ahsan makes an important contribution to the explanation and understanding of these interactions in the context of the Islamic world.”

John Obert Voll · Georgetown University · AJISS, 1993

“The book also reads well and is well worth reading.”

Where to go next

A selected bibliography with source links, a public CV, media-ready biographies, and a form for lecture and interview requests.

WritingBooks, articles, chapters and commentary, searchable by topic IdeasThe four categories, the questions they open, and the source trail LearnReading paths, chronology and citation records for teaching TalksLectures, seminars and recorded conversations AboutBiography, appointments and authority identifiers Invite or interviewLectures, seminars, media and institutional requests