to India in August 1879, where he stayed in Hyderabad and Calcutta. He then traveled to Constantinople, London, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Munich. While in Egypt, Afghani sought the removal of the ruling regime of Khedive Ismail which he viewed as pro-British and used Freemasonry as an organizational base for his political activities. During this period, Afghani had also considered assassinating Khedive Ismail. He perceived freemasonry as a means of advancing his anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, pan-Islamic causes. Afghani's political activities would play a decisive role in overthrowing Ismail Pasha from the throne and bringing Tawfiq Pasha as the Khedive. However, local Masons asserted that they were not interested in politics and sought reconciliation to the British empire. When Afghani was warned that the lodge was not a political platform, he replied:"I have seen a lot of odd things in this country [Egypt], but I would never have thought that cowardice would infiltrate the ranks of masonry to such an extent". Roughly around 1875-1876, an incident wherein Masons lavishly praised a British imperial visitor was a major reason for Afghani's quitting of Freemasonry. After realising the indifference of the Masons and their political subservience to the British empire, Afghani eventually left Freemasonry. In 1884, he began publishing an Arabic newspaper in Paris entitled al-Urwah al-Wuthqa ("The Indissoluble Link") with Muhammad Abduh; the title (Arabic: العروة الوثقى), sometimes translated as "The Strongest Bond", is taken from Quran 2:256. The newspaper called for a return to the original principles and ideals of Islam, and for greater unity among Islamic peoples. He argued that this would allow the Islamic community to regain its former strength against European powers. When Al-Afgani was visiting Bushehr in southern Iran in the spring of 1886, planning to pick up books he had shipped there and carry on to Russia, he fell ill. He was invited by Shah Nasser ad-Din's Minister of Press and Publications to come to Tehran, but fell from favor quite quickly and the Shah asked him to be taken to Russia, where Al-Afghani spent 1887 to 1889. From Russia he traveled to Munich and returned to Iran in late 1889. Due to his political activities, the Shah planned to expel him from Iran, but Al-Afghani found out and took sanctuary in the Shah Abdol-Azim shrine near Tehran. After seven months of preaching to admirers from the shrine, he was arrested in 1891, transported to the