Overview

In essays drawn from over the course of his distinguished career, Roy Mottahedeh explores such diverse topics as the social bonds that connected people in the early Islamic Middle East, the transmission of learning in the Muslim world and the theme of ‘wonders’ in The Thousand and One Nights. His rich corpus attends to the early Islamic period, the medieval era and modern times. A number of pieces concern Iran, the country of his father’s birth, and here too Mottahedeh’s focus is varied, as he studies Persian panegyric poetry, the origins of the city of Kashan and Shi‘ite political thought. Intended not only for those in Islamic studies but for students of history and interested lay readers, there are introductions to each section written with the non-specialist in mind, and these sections progress from more general topics to those more specialised. In the Shadow of the Prophet thus reflects Mottahedeh’s desire that the Islamic world and its history become better understood in the Western world.

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9780861545605

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Reviews

'The beauty of [Mottahedeh's work] is in his ability to explain sophisticated ideas and difficult subjects in a way which is widely accessible.' * London Review of Books * 'In this collection, Roy Mottahedeh brings a uniquely rich and variegated scholarly perspective to the principal themes of Islamic history. The fruit of decades of travel, teaching, research, and deep personal engagement with modern Iran and the Middle East, these articles are as humane as they are learned, and as wise as they are trenchant. At a time when such humanity is greatly needed, they offer an unsurpassed entry into the many voices and approaches that have come together, over the centuries, to characterize the vast and varied tradition of Islam.' -- Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus, Princeton University

'The beauty of [Mottahedeh's work] is in his ability to explain sophisticated ideas and difficult subjects in a way which is widely accessible.' * London Review of Books * Praise for The Mantle of the Prophet: 'One of the top 75 books of the twentieth century.' Foreign Affairs 'A remarkable treasure.' Wall Street Journal 'Mottahedeh has drawn on a massive amount of learning, but he has got the scholarly apparatus out of the way and made his book accessible to a wide audience.' New York Times

'The fruit of decades of travel, teaching, research, and deep personal engagement with modern Iran and the Middle East, these articles are as humane as they are learned, and as wise as they are trenchant.' -- Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus, Princeton University 'The erudite elegance of his discourse in this remarkable collection is the result of a long, prolific life dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the many Islams in history.' -- Abbas Milani, Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies, Stanford University 'This book demonstrates its author's impressive breadth and insight dealing with diverse aspects of premodern and modern Islamic history, religion, and culture. Roy Mottahedeh shows us the complexity of a civilizational experience over a millennium and highlights the place of Iranians in it. This is a timely contribution at a time when misperceptions abound. His delightful autobiography adds to the book's appeal.' -- Abbas Amanat, William Graham Sumner Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University

Author Information

Roy Parviz Mottahedeh is the Gurney Professor of History, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He served as the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard from 1987 to 1990 and as Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard from 2006 to 2011. He is the author of The Mantle of the Prophet and translator of Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence by Muhammad Baqir As-Sadr, both of which are available from Oneworld. He lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.

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