civil service in 1966. He graduated from University of the Punjab and University of Birmingham and later attended Cambridge University doing an MA. In 1978, Ahmed graduated with a PhD in Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. At certain points in his life Ahmed held important government positions such as Political Agent for the South Waziristan Agency/North West Frontier Province (1978-1980) and in Baluchistan was Commissioner for the three districts (1982-1988) and Commissioner of the Sibi Division (1989). Ahmed was the founder and served as Director of the National Centre for Rural Development in Islamabad and also a Director of the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, University Grants Commission in Pakistan. In 1988 Ahmed became the Allama Iqbal Fellow at Selywn College, Cambridge for five years and by 1993 he was appointed as the first Muslim Fellow. He also was the first Pakistani to serve on the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Akbar Ahmed has held professorships at several North American educational institutions. At Princeton University he taught courses and served as a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He also taught at Harvard University and was a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology. Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. In 2004 Ahmed was named District of Columbia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He also taught at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan. Prior to the Brookings quartet of studies, Ahmed's projects included the Jinnah Quartet and Living Islam. The Jinnah Quartet comprised a feature film Jinnah (1998), with Christopher Lee in the title role; a documentary, Mr. Jinnah: The Making of Pakistan (1997); a graphic novel, The Quaid: Jinnah and the Story of Pakistan (1997); and a biographical study, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin (1997). Ahmed presented and narrated the six-part BBC TV series Living Islam (1993) and authored the accompanying book of the same name. Later, Ahmed served as Pakistani High Commissioner (ambassador) to the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1999 to 2000. Research interests and literary works Ahmed's research interests focus on Pashtuns and others including tribal groups, Muslim