Ahmed Toufiq

Ahmed Toufiq is a writer and scholar from Morocco who has served as the minister for Islamic affairs in the government of Morocco since 2002.

Biography

Toufiq was born in 1943 in the High Atlas near the city of Marrakech. He presented his PhD in 1979 on the subject of social history in the Moroccan rural areas in the 19th century and worked as a professor of history in the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Rabat (1970 - 1989). He was later appointed director of the Institute of African Studies at the Mohammed V University. In 1995 he became director of the National Library of Morocco. In 1989 Ahmed Toufiq received his first Moroccan Book Prize for his novel “Shajarat Hinna' Wa Qamar” (A Tree of Henna and a Moon).

In November 2002, Toufiq was appointed as minister for Islamic affairs in the government of Morocco. He is also a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute.^[1] Toufiq is a Sufi.^[2]

Bibliography

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)
• Shajarat Hinna' Wa Qamar (A Tree of Henna and a Moon)

Further reading

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

References

1. The Elijah Interfaith Institute - Muslim Members of the Board of World Religious Leaders
2. Washington Institute: "Sufism: An Alternative to Extremism?" by Sarah Feuer March 11, 2015