Profile of Rafiullah Azmi

Dr. RAFIULLAH AZMI is a person with a multi-disciplinary background. His scope of studies spans over History, Islamic Studies, Area Studies and Commerce. He is currently a Professor in the Department of History, School of Arts and Social Sciences at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, a Central university funded by the Government of India. Before joining MANUU, he has taught at the Centre for West Asian (Middle Eastern) Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university, a Central University at New Delhi. Earlier to this, he was associated with Zakir Husain Institute of Islamic Studies of the same university from 1999- 2007. He has also worked at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), Delhi, a premier research Think-Tank, before joining JMI. He has also worked as a journalist for a short period at Bureau Office of the Iranian News Agency (IRNA), Delhi.

Dr. Azmi has published articles in important research journals including published by Routledge and Sage, the latest being “Iran’s strategic Behaviour Against ISIS: Religio-Cultural Context of Shrines and Martyrdom” in Strategic Analysis published by the Routledge (4^th April 2023 online). He has authored a book entitled “Conflict in the Gulf: British Quest for the Domination and the Ottoman Response”, and co-edited another book entitled “Foreign Policy of India and West Asia: Change and Continuity”, New Centruy Publications, 2014. Besides this, he has also contributed chapters in several edited books.

He has successfully guided several students for their Ph.D theses, M.Phil and MA. dissertations at the Centre for West Asian Studies, JMI. He has taught courses at M.Phil/PhD and M.A level at the same Centre from 2008-2022. He has also taught two courses to post-graduate students at the Department of Islamic Studies, JMI.

Dr. Azmi has traveled to the UK, Italy, Turkey, Hong- Kong, Malaysia, Iran, UAE, Sultanate of Oman, some of them thrice for participation in the conferences and research trips.

He has been invited to deliver lectures by various Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) across the country. He has also given valedictory address at a national seminar and presided over several sessions at international and national conferences.

After schooling at his native place Azamgarh, U.P. he moved to Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh (A.M.U.) for higher education and obtained graduation (B. Com Hons) and post-graduation (History) degrees from there. Subsequently, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi for his research pursuit and earned M.Phil & Ph.D degrees from the Centre for West Asian (Middle Eastern) Studies, School of International Studies of the same university. While teaching at Jamia Millia Islamia, he also obtained M.A. in Islamic Studies. He is proficient in English, Urdu, and Hindi.

Dr. Azmi takes keen interest in mentoring and guiding students, particularly from under privileged and marginalized section of the society at various levels from all discipline. His passion is to create hope among the hopeless students and inspire to become aspirational and big dreamer. He works for holistic development of students’ personality in order to make them better citizen of the globalized world. He teaches and encourages them to think beyond text books and inculcate a spirit of enquiry. Several students mentored by him are working as faculty members in India, and few of them are also teaching in reputed universities abroad. Taking benefit from his guidance and mentorship, several students have qualified Civil services Exam conducted by the UPSC and also by state PCS and are working as officers in the Central and state governments, journalists and engineers and managers in private sector.