About Ibrahim

Ibrahim is a historian of the Modern Middle East and Islam. His research explores the important mediating role of state-sponsored Islam and the role it plays in the secular state’s national project. Using archival sources from the Egyptian National Archives, the British National Archives, and the restricted Archives of Al-Azhar, he analyzes the relationship between secularism and the bureaucratization of religious institutions in Egypt, challenging the excessive influence accorded to Islamist movements in the study of Islam and politics. His work on this topic began at Cornell University where he will defend his doctoral dissertation in July 2023. Prior to joining Cornell University's Department of Near Eastern Studies as a PhD student Ibrahim was a tenure-track faculty member at Al-Azhar University’s Islamic Studies Department.

As a fellow at NYUAD, Ibrahim will prepare his first book tentatively titled, Between Secularism and Religion: State, Islam, and the Making of Nasser’s Egypt, 1952-1970. The book takes Gamal Abdel Nasser’s secular rule in Egypt as a particularly valuable lens to investigate the role power relations of the state and its religious institutions play in shaping secularism, religion, society, and the intersection between them.