Ahmed Toufiq (born 22 June 1943) is a Moroccan historian and novelist who has served as Minister for Islamic Affairs in the government of Morocco since 2002. Born in the Marigha Village in the High Atlas, he completed his primary and secondary studies in Marrakech, then enrolled at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Rabat where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in history in 1968, then a master’s degree in history. The topic of his 1979 Ph.D was the social history of Moroccan rural areas in the 19th century. After teaching for several years, he joined the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Rabat. He was appointed director of the Institute for African Studies at the Mohammed V University in 1989 and held the position for six years until 1995. From 1995 to 2002, he worked as director of the National Library of Morocco.  In 1989 Ahmed Toufiq received his first Moroccan Book Prize for his novel Shajarat Hinna’ Wa Qamar (translated into English as Moon and Henna Tree). In 2001 he served as a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School, affiliated with its Center for the Study of World Religions. Since November 2002, Toufiq has served as Morocco’s Minister for Islamic Affairs. He is also a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute.