Akbar Ahmed interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 29^th July 2004

0:00:51 Ancestry and background; memories of father

0:03:28 Own experience of wider world created interest in other peoples; winter holidays in Bangkok; Catholic boarding school; Buddhist and Moslem influences

0:05:26  Memories of mother, a Pukhtun; Pathan society; parents marriage; differences in outlook between parents

0:08:59 Schooling at Burn Hall, Abbottabad;  took B.A. in Lahore; Birmingham University, UK, then Selwyn College, Cambridge; influenced greatly by the headmaster at school, Father Scanlon; unhappy time at Birmingham attempting to read econometrics, then transferred to anthropology and sociology and took B.A.

0:16:06 First heard about anthropology and sociology at Birmingham; then to Cambridge to do teaching diploma, and also took Pakistan Civil Service exam and joined in 1966; then discovered the match between anthropology and profession as a district officer; throughout subsequent years have had the twin track of academic anthropology and diplomacy

0:18:47 Influenced at Birmingham by John Rex; introduced to the power of sociology through Rex’s work on Max Weber; still a great admirer of Weber; discovered Ibn Khaldun through work of Western scholars

0:22:36 Max Weber and his rationalization theory; bureaucracy; but religions are shaping societies now, especially outside Europe

0:26:15 Read Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict for pleasure; during teaching diploma at Cambridge experienced teaching practice at Sherborne; taught English and could give an authoritative slant on Foster’s “Passage to India”

0:28:54 On return to Pakistan trained in Lahore and then went to Abbottabad; then got first full posting in the Punjab; 1971 sent to East Pakistan; officers from West Pakistan sent to the East and vice versa in the hope that they could bridge the gap forming between the two provinces; witnessed Pakistan tearing itself apart; reconfirmed belief in universality

0:31:03 Nirad Chaudhuri; wrote blurb for cover of book on Waziristan [Resistance and Control in Pakistan]; began writing while a district officer; neglected route to advancement through cultivating friendships with the right people as a result; appreciation of the British gazetteer on Abbottabad which influenced own work, not only as an anthroplogist, but as a district officer

0:37:30 Sir Evelyn Howell and Sir Olaf Caroe; the influence of their ethnographic work; historical importance of Waziristan and its relevance today; spent academic year 1980 at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton writing about Waziristan  

0:45:33 Sir Olaf Caroe; civilised face of British imperialism; respect for the Pathan peoples evidenced in his book; personal friendship

0:48:40 Views on the British Empire; brutal phase when securing power; Lord Curzon and moral authority; this communicated to later I.C.S. officers like Howell and Caroe, and influenced own generation; attitude of tolerance and understanding of others relevant today; British remembered for stability, security and fairness and the standard set by them has not always been maintained

0:56:20 Haimendorf; 1974 at S.O.A.S. for Ph.D. supervisor was Adrian Mayer; returned to political work but then took off another year for fieldwork in Mohmand area which resulted in published thesis ‘Pukhtun Economy and Society’; differences between Adrian Mayer’s work and own but very good at emphasising the discipline needed in a thesis; sacrificed a prize posting as political office in Khyber to do Ph.D. in London; on return got the job in Waziristan

1:00:23 How he became “spokesman” for Islam in the West; persuaded by father to write on Islam and eventually produced ‘Discovering Islam’ which was then televised by the BBC as ‘Living Islam’; Salman Rushdie affair pulled him into debates on Islam; defended by Ernest Gellner; further books and films trying to explain the nature of Islam; Princess Diana and Prince Charles; speaking as a Moslem to Jews and Christians

1:11:20 August 2001 took Ibn Khaldun chair at the American University in Washington; Twin Towers made it even more necessary to explain Islam

1:13:55 Memories of Ernest Gellner; offered to write forward to ‘Millennium and Charisma among the Pathans’; comparisons of Islam with other societies and in its various forms