Iqbal Akhtar

Iqbal Akhtar is an assistant professor with a dual appointment in the departments of Religious Studies and Politics & International Relations within the School of International and Public Affairs. He completed his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh’s New College School of Divinity. His thesis is entitled The Oriental African: The Evolution of Postcolonial Islamic Identities among the Globalized Khōjā of Dar Es Salaam. It studies the evolution of Khōjā religious identity in East Africa over two centuries from the late eighteenth century Indic Khōjā religion of Hindu-Islam to Near Eastern Islamic orthodoxy in the late twentieth century. His current work explores the origin of the Khōjā peoples in the Subcontinent through extant oral traditions known as the kahaṇī in Sindhi, Gujarati, and Hindustani.

Professor Akhtar is currently the professor of Islamic Studies at FIU and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses as well as independent studies which include but are not limited to: Advanced Interpretation of the Quran, Voice of the Prophet, Islamic Faith and Society, Women in Islam, Voice of the Prophet, and Islamic Mysticism (Sufism).