Daud Ali

Daud Ali was born in Calcutta, India, to a Bengali father and an American mother.[1]

Daud Ali's Bengali father and his own interest in Indian philosophy led him to study South Asian history in college.[1] He went on to study Sanskrit, Tamil and Indian philosophy. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and religious studies at the College of William & Mary and then obtained a Master of Arts degree in the history of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School[1] where he was a student of Ron Inden. His thesis on medieval South Indian history led him to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, after which he taught history of ancient India for 14 years at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.[2] Since 2009, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021 he was appointed Editor of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.[3]

• Daud Ali, ed. (1999). Invoking the Past: the Uses of History in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Daud Ali, Ronald Inden and Jonathan Walters (2000). Querying the Medieval: The History of Practice in South Asia. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Daud Ali (2004). Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India. Cambridge University Press.
• Daud Ali and Anand Pandian, ed. (2010). Ethical Life in South Asia. Indiana University Press.
• Daud Ali and Indra Sengupta, ed. (2011). Knowledge Production, Pedagogy and Institutions in Colonial India. New York: Palgrave.
• Daud Ali and Emma Flatt, ed. (2011). Garden and Landscape Practices in Precolonial India: Histories from the Deccan. London: Routledge.

He led an annual tour to southern India for Far Horizons Archaeological and Cultural Trips.[1]