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Ahmed Toufiq

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Ahmed Toufiq
Minister of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs
Assumed office
7 September 2002
MonarchMohammed VI
Prime MinisterAbderrahmane Youssoufi
Driss Jettou
Abbas El Fassi
Abdelilah Benkirane
Saadeddine Othmani
Aziz Akhannouch
Preceded byAbdelkebir M'Daghri Alaoui
Personal details
Born (1943-06-25) 25 June 1943 (age 81)
Margha, Morocco
Academic background
Alma materMohammed V University
Thesisal-Mujtamaʿ al-Maghribī fī al-Qarn al-Tāsiʿa ʿAshar: ʼInūltāne (1850-1912)
Doctoral advisorGermain Ayache
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian

Ahmed Toufiq (born 22 June 1943) is a Moroccan historian and novelist who has been serving as Minister for Islamic Affairs in the government of Morocco since 2002.

Biography

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Toufiq was born on 22 June 1943 in Marigha Village in the High Atlas.[1] After completing his primary and secondary studies in Marrakech, he enrolled at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of Rabat, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1968, then a master's degree in history. Toufiq also holds a certificate of Archaeology. He presented his PhD in 1979 on the subject of social history in the Moroccan rural areas in the 19th century.

He started his career as a teacher at L'École Normale Supérieure de Marrakech and taught in a high school in Rabat. Thereafter, he joined the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Rabat, where he served in various roles from 1970 to 1989; lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor. He was appointed director of the Institute of African Studies at the Mohammed V University in 1989. holding the position for six years until 1995. From 1995 to 2002, he worked as director of the National Library of Morocco.[2][3]

In 1989, Toufiq received his first Moroccan Book Prize for his novel Shajarat Hinna' Wa Qamar (A Tree of Henna and a Moon). In 2001, he served as a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School, affiliated with its Center for the Study of World Religions.[4]

In November 2002, Toufiq was appointed to the government as Minister for Islamic Affairs. He is also a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute.[5] Toufiq is a Sufi.[6]

Bibliography

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Historical studies
  • La société marocaine au XIXe siècle - Inoultane 1850 - 1912
  • Islam et développement
  • Les juifs de Demnat
  • Le Maroc et l'Afrique Occidentale à travers les âges
Novels
  • Abu Musa's Women Neighbors (translated by Roger Allen, from Jarat Abi Musa, 1997, ISBN 2-87623-215-4)
  • Al Sayl (The Stream, 1998)
  • Shujayrat Hinna' Wa Qamar (translated by Roger Allen, Moon and Henna Tree, 2013, ISBN 0292748248)

Further reading

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  • Marvine Howe, Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges, pp. 343, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-516963-8

References

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  1. ^ "M. Ahmed Toufiq, ministre des Habous et des Affaires islamiques". Maghreb Arabe Press. 2017-06-22. Archived from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  2. ^ Wainscott, Ann Marie (2017). Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror. Cambridge University Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-316-51049-0.
  3. ^ Park, Thomas Kerlin; Boum, Aomar (2006). Historical Dictionary of Morocco. Scarecrow Press. pp. 331–332. ISBN 978-0-8108-5341-6.
  4. ^ McDowell, Wendy. "Ahmed Toufiq: Modern Speech in Orthodox Islam". Harvard Divinity School. Archived from the original on 2020-10-13. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  5. ^ "The Elijah Interfaith Institute - Muslim Members of the Board of World Religious Leaders". Archived from the original on 2011-05-26. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
  6. ^ Washington Institute: "Sufism: An Alternative to Extremism?" by Sarah Feuer Archived 2015-09-19 at the Wayback Machine March 11, 2015