Watch | Taliban FM Amir Khan Muttaqi visits Darul Uloom Deoband. What's the Islamic seminary's link with Afghanistan?

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, on 11 October, visited the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, a prominent Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur. Muttaqi is on a six-day visit to India.

Muttaqi was welcomed by thousands of people – clerics, Islamic scholars, and students – at the historic seminary. The seminary administration made elaborate arrangements to welcome him, with a group of 15 prominent Ulema (Islamic scholars) receiving him.

Videos from the seminary showed students and faculty members showering flower petals on Muttaqi as he entered the campus, while many students gathered eagerly to take selfies with his entourage. Muttaqi's scheduled address at the seminary had to be cancelled amid crowd frenzy.

“I am thankful for such a grand welcome and the affection shown by the people here. I hope that India-Afghanistan ties advance further. We will be sending new diplomats, and I hope you people will visit Kabul as well. I have hopes for stronger ties in the future- from the way I was received in Delhi, these visits may be frequent in the near future,” Muttaqi said in his address.

About the Islamic Seminary

Darul Uloom Deoband is an international Islamic seminary founded in 1866 in Deoband, India, known for its extensive Islamic education, significant influence, and adherence to orthodox Sunni Islam and the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was established on 31 May 1866, in the aftermath of the 1857 revolt, through the efforts of Sayyid Muhammad Abid and Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi.

The seminary is highly regarded by many Taliban leaders. Several Taliban commanders and leaders studied at Darul Uloom Haqqania in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which was founded on the same lines as Darul Uloom Deoband.

Deoband-Afghan Ties

Maulana Abdul Haq, who founded Darul Uloom Haqqania, studied and taught in the seminary in Deoband before Partition in 1947. His son, Sami-ul-Haq, is referred to as the “Father of the Taliban” because of Darul Uloom Haqqania’s role in grooming Taliban commanders and leaders.

The visit carried deep symbolic and spiritual meaning, as the last Afghan dignitary to visit the seminary was King Zahir Shah way back in 1958. A gate named Babu Zahir still exists to commemorate the occasion

The relationship between Deoband and Afghanistan is a centuries-old one. Even before Partition, Deobandi scholars had been engaged in Afghanistan in both political and religious matters, according to experts.

During the famous Silk Letter Movement (1913–1920), Deobandi clerics sought to forge alliances with the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and the German Empire to challenge British rule in India, according to Soumya Awasthi, Fellow, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

Shared intellectual networks

The Silk Letter Movement was led by Deobandi Muslim scholars, including Maulana Mahmood Hasan and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi, and aimed to overthrow British rule by forming alliances with countries such as the Ottoman Empire, Imperial Germany, Afghanistan, and Russia.

These links left a lasting imprint on Indo-Afghan religious and political consciousness, binding the two societies through shared intellectual networks, Awasthi wrote recently.

"From the late nineteenth century onwards, Afghan scholars were among the earliest foreign disciples to study at Deoband, returning to Kabul, Kandahar, and Khost to establish madrasas modelled on its curriculum and teaching style. These institutions helped embed the Deobandi ethos defined by scholarship, austerity, and strict adherence to classical texts within Afghan religious life,” she wrote.

Amir Khan Muttaqi's India visit

India on Friday announced the upgrading of its technical mission in Kabul to the status of an embassy and pledged to renew its development works in Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also appreciated the Taliban's setup for showing sensitivity towards New Delhi's security concerns.

Jaishankar made the twin announcements during his wide-ranging talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi on Thursday on his first diplomatic visit to India.

India had withdrawn its officials from its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. In June 2022, India re-established its diplomatic presence in the Afghan capital by deploying a “technical team”.