About Jamal-al-Din Afghan Sayyid Muḥammad ibn Ṣafdar Husaynī (born 1838 - died March 9, 1897) (Persian: سید محمد بن صفدر حسینی), mostly known as Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn al-Afghānī, (Persian: سید جمال الدین افغاني) or Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn Asadābādī (Persian: سید جمال الدین اسدآبادی), was a political activist and Islamic nationalist active in Qajarid Persia, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. One of the founders of Islamic modernism, and an advocate of pan-Islamic unity, he has been described as "less interested in theology than he was in organizing a Muslim response to Western pressure."