Ahmed Al-Shahi

Position:

Research Associate

Faculty / College Address:

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 

Biography: 

Ahmed Al-Shahi M.Litt, D.Phil (Oxford University) is a social anthropologist whose main research interests are in economic and social development, sectarian politics, social differentiation and oral tradition. He has conducted fieldwork in northern Sudan with specific reference to the Shaygiyya tribe. He has taught social anthropology at the universities of Khartoum (1965-1970), Newcastle upon Tyne (1975-1996) and Oxford (occasional). He has authored the book From Northern Sudan, Ithaca Press, London 1986 and authored and edited other publications on Sudan, the Middle East, Islam, the Arab Gulf Shaikhdoms and Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants in Europe. Since retirement in 1996, he has been a Senior Associate Member (later a Research Fellow) of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. At the present time he is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. In 2002 he co-founded The Sudanese Programme with support from the Middle East Centre and African Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. The programme is registered as a Charity with the Charity Commission UK. 

Educational Background:

M.Litt, D.Phil (Oxford University) 

Research Interests:

Social anthropology, with regional interest in Sudan and the Middle East. Topics of interest: economic and social development, social differentiation, sectarian politics, oral literature, Gulf Shaikhdoms and Middle East and North African immigrants in Europe 

Current Projects:

• Edited and just published – Observations on some Social, Economic and Cultural Institutions of the Iranian City of Isfahan (1965-1966) by Peter Lienhardt 

• Editing and preparing for publication, letters by 2 distinguished anthropologists who were at University of Oxford 

Courses Taught:

• Middle East Anthropology
• Arab popular culture

Recent Publications:

• Al-Shahi, Ahmed (Ed.), 2025. Observations on some Social, Economic and Cultural Institutions of the Iranian City of Isfahan (1965-1966) by Peter Lienhardt 

• Al-Shahi, Ahmed & Barltrop, Richard (Eds.), 2024. Sudanese Diaspora: Their Roles in Sudan and South Sudan 

• Al-Shahi, Ahmed (Ed.), 2022. Sustainable Peace and Future Governance of South Sudan 

• Al-Shahi, Ahmed & Mignon, Laurent (Eds.), 2019. Women Writers of the Two Sudans