Ali Khan Mahmudabad

Mohammad Amir Ahmad Khan, (born December 2, 1982), is an Indian historian, Political Scientist, poet, writer, cultural critic, and assistant professor in the dual fields of history and political science at Ashoka University. Writing under the pen name of Ali Khan Mahmudabad, he has a column in Urdu for the national daily The Inquilab in India. He also writes regularly for a number of online and print publications, including the Caravan Magazine,The Indian Express,Times of India,The Outlook Magazine,Hindustan Times, Business Standard,Daily News and Analysis,Tehelka magazine and The Sunday Guardian in India. He also writes for a number of publications from other parts of the world like The Guardian,The Straits Times,Huffington Post, and OpenDemocracy. His writings focus on political, social, economic and security issues amongst others in South Asia and the Middle East.

Khan grew up in Mahmudabad, India. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College where he graduated with a double major in history and political science in the year 2006. Following this he studied advanced level Arabic from the University of Damascus. By 2010, he had earned an MPhil in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge (Girton College, Cambridge), and by 2014, he also secured his PhD in history from Cambridge. His dissertation was on “Rhetorics and Spaces of Belonging among North Indian Muslims, 1850- 1950” under supervision of Professor Sir Christopher Bayly and Professor Javed Majeed.