People

Dr Abdul Jaleel commenced his appointment as Research Fellow in the Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster under the Muhd Alagil Endowment, with effect from 1 September 2022.

Dr Jaleel graduated with a PhD in West Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University. With a keen focus on the history, culture and religious traditions of Arab communities in South India and Southeast Asia, he explores broader and enduring aspects of the Arabia Asia engagements. Prior to this, he taught West Asian Studies at the University of Kerala and was a Visiting Research Fellow at BGSMCS, Free University, Berlin. Dr Jaleel is currently working on a book project titled ”Sacred Sailors: Islam in the Sufi Cosmopolis of the Indian Ocean”. Drawing on previously unexplored manuscripts from mosque, family and personal archives, this book offers a novel historical exploration of Sufism’s cosmopolitan and transformative influence across the Indian Ocean since the fourteenth century, with a special focus on the Alawi Sufi path that originated in Yemen’s Hadramawt region.