Zafarul-Islam Khan (born 1948) is an Indian scholar, author and journalist based in New Delhi. He studied in Indian madrasas, Al‑Azhar and Cairo universities in Egypt and the UK where he obtained his PhD from Manchester University in Islāmic Studies in 1987 with a dissertation on the “Concept of Hijrah in Islām.” He worked as a translator-editor with the Libyan Foreign Ministry during 1973-1979. Later, he served as a senior research fellow at The Muslim Institute, London, during 1979-1992. He is the director of the Institute of Islāmic & Arab Studies, New Delhi. He was the editor of Muslim & Arab Perspectives since 1993 and Majallah al-Tarīkh Al‑Islāmī/Journal of Islāmic History (1995-97). He was the editor of the Indian Muslims’ leading English publication, The Milli Gazette, from its inception in January 2000 to December 2016. He remains the editor of its online publication until now.
He is also the founder and chairman of Charity Alliance, an organisation involved in relief and welfare work in India. He is also the Managing Director of Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd.
Dr Khan is the author and translator of over 50 books in Arabic, English and Urdu, including Tārīkh Filasṭīn al-Qadīm (Beirut 1973), Al-Haj Ḥikmah wa rumūz (London 1981), Haj in Focus (London 1986), Hijrah in Islām (Delhi 1996), Dalīl al-Bāḥith (Amman/Beirut 1996), Palestine Documents (New Delhi 1998), and Mushawarat Documents (Delhi, 2015). He has contributed eight articles to the Second Edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islām (Leiden) on Indo-Muslim subjects.
Dr Khan attended dozens of national and international conferences and seminars and has delivered keynote addresses at many universities in India and abroad. He organised several international conferences in London and Delhi, including the International Dialogue between Islām and Oriental Religions in Delhi in February 2010. He is a trustee and member of a number of Indian and foreign organisations. He frequently appears as a commentator on Islāmic, Arab and South Asian issues on radio and TV channels in India and abroad.
Dr Khan was the President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella of Indian Muslim organisations and eminent personalities, for three two-year terms (2008-2009, 2012-2013, 2014-2015) and now again since June 2024 for a two-year term. Since September 2021, he is the director of the Shibli Academy, the oldest and most respected Muslim research institution in the Subcontinent, and is the editor of its monthly journal, Ma‘ārif.
In 2017 he was nominated as a Member of the Delhi Waqf Tribunal but he resigned after he was appointed as the Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission in July 2017 for a three-year term.
In 2023 his annotated English translation of the Holy Quran was published as “The Glorious Quran” which has been acclaimed as one of the best English translation of the Muslim holy book.