Cogut Institute for the Humanities

Faiz Ahmed is Associate Professor in the Department of History. A historian of the Ottoman Empire and modern Middle East, his core research and teaching interests include human mobility, travel, and migration; networks of learning and expertise; and the intersections of law, citizenship, and diplomacy. His first book, Afghanistan Rising: Islamic Law and Statecraft between the Ottoman and British Empires (Harvard University Press, 2017), was awarded the American Historical Association’s John F. Richards Prize in 2018. His current book project, “Ottoman Americana: The Late Ottoman Empire and the Early United States” (under contract with Princeton University Press), examines the social, economic, and legal underpinnings of Ottoman-U.S. ties, based on Ottoman sources and perspectives. His published articles can be found in multiple journals of law, history, and Global South studies, including Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; Global Jurist; International History Review; International Journal of Middle East Studies; Iranian Studies; Law and History Review; Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association; and Perspectives on History. Interviews with him have appeared on national radio and history channels, as well as local news, including NPR’s “Throughline,” Boston Globe, ABC6 Rhode Island news, Toynbee Prize Foundation, Borderlines, and “Ottoman History Podcast.”