Associate Professor
Ph.D. (SALC)– University of Chicago, 2008
B.A. (History)– Miami University, Ohio 1997
B.A. (Math & Physics)– University of the Punjab, 1991
Manan Ahmed, Associate Professor, is a historian of South Asia and the littoral western Indian Ocean world from 1000-1800 CE. His areas of specialization include intellectual history in South and Southeast Asia; critical philosophy of history, colonial and anti-colonial thought. He is interested in how modern and pre-modern historical narratives create understandings of places, communities, and intellectual genealogies for their readers. His full CV is available here.
He is a member of Columbia's Center for Study of Ethnicity and Race, Center for the Study of Muslim Societies, and Committee on Global Thought. He is a Senior Editor at Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He is on the Editorial Board for the journals Philological Encounters and Al-'Usur Al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalist.
His first monograph, A Book of Conquest: Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia (Harvard University Press, 2016), is on the intellectual life of an early thirteenth-century history Chachnama. You can listen to two podcasts on the book--New Books and Ottoman History. There is also a book talk in Urdu.
His second monograph, The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India (Harvard University Press, 2020; pbk 2023) is a concept-history of “Hindustan,” focusing specifically on the work of the seventeenth century Deccan historian Firishta (fl. 1570-1620). The Loss of Hindustan was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize 2021. An Arabic translation by Ayman Shehata Assal, Diyā Hindstan, came out in July 2022 from Al-Maktab Al-Arabe Lil-Maaref Egypt. You can listen to a podcast about the book with HistoryExtra.
His third monograph, Disrupted City: Walking the Pathways of Memory and History in Lahore (The New Press, 2024) is a history of Pakistan’s cultural and intellectual capital, Lahore, and a meditation on textual and material histories of the place. It combines ethnography, oral histories and deep archival work, covering over a thousand years of this pivotal city.
His current book project is on the history of Area Studies, Data Sciences and A.I. as knowledge system projects in the history of colonization and decolonization.
He has extensive background in digital history, in the history of archives in the global south and the problems of access and control to digitized materials. He founded Chapati Mystery--a cultural and intellectual history blog--in 2004. His recent projects include: Torn Apart/Separados which focused on the humanitarian crisis on the southwestern border in Summer 2018) and Targeted Harassment of Academics by Hindutva: A Twitter Analysis of the India-US Connection--a study focused on right-wing social media. He is currently working on community based archival projects in Harlem.
Two of his recent major international research projects are: "Decolonization, the Disciplines and the University" (2019-2025) funded by the Mellon Foundation and "Muslims in India" (2020-2023) funded by the Luce Foundation. He manages the "Qalam Pakistan Initiative" at the History Department at Columbia.
Manan Ahmed teaches a range of courses including “Borderlands,” “Mughal Memoirs,” "Colonization & Decolonization," "The City & the Archive." The syllabi for the various courses are available here.
His articles and book chapters (and reviews) can be accessed via Columbia Academic Commons.