Hamid Algar, Ph.D. was Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, now the Department of Middle Eastern Languages of Cultures. Professor Algar began his studies of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Civilzation at Cambridge in 1959. After graduating, he spent a lengthy and fruitful period of travel in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan before returning to Cambridge in 1963 and completing his doctorate there two years later. He taught at UCB in the Department of Near Eastern Studies from 1965 to 2010, providing a wide range of instruction in the fields of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish literature and offering lecture courses on various aspects of Islamic religion and culture. His research interests center on Shi’ism in Iran and Sufism in the Persian and Persian-influenced world, with particular emphasis on the Naqshbandi order. His copious writings have been published in an array of languages additional to English: French, German, Russian, Italian, Bosnian, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Malay/Indonesian. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tehran.
Job title:
Professor Emeritus of Persian and Islamic Studies; CMES Senior Research Scholar
Department:
Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures
Bio/CV:
Role:
