Ahmed holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Current and former chair of Comparative Literature at Queens College, City University of New York, he teaches courses in African, Middle Eastern, and European literature. His poetry and short stories have also been translated into several languages, including Japanese and the languages spoken in the former Yugoslavia. His books include The Invention of Somalia (Red Sea Press, 1995), Daybreak Is Near: Literature, Clans, and the Nation-State in Somalia (Red Sea Press, 1996), and Fear Is a Cow (Red Sea Press, 2002).