Life and Thought
Abbas Amanat, born November 14, 1947, is an Iranian historian and Iranologist and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. His research areas include modern Iranian history, the Qajar period, the Babi movement, and Iranian Shi'ism.
Abbas Amanat, born November 14, 1947, is a historian, Iranologist, and Professor Emeritus of History and International Studies at Yale University. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Tehran and his doctorate in history from the University of Oxford. Amanat is a leading scholar of Iranian history, particularly the Qajar period, the Babi movement, Iranian Shi'ism, the history of political thought, and Iranian identity. He held the William Graham Sumner Chair at Yale University and has collaborated with the Encyclopædia Iranica and the journal Iranian Studies.
Amanat's primary fields of work are modern Iranian history, Qajar history, the Babi and Baha'i faiths, apocalyptic thought in Islam and Shi'ism, the history of Iranian identity, and Iran's relationship with the modern world. His methodology typically combines political history, cultural history, religious history, and the analysis of social structures. His works on the Babi movement, Naser al-Din Shah, and the modern history of Iran are considered important academic research in these fields.
Bibliography
Writings and transcribed lectures7 titles
Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850
Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896
Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism
Iran: A Modern History
The Qajar Era and the Longing for Europe
The Solar Calendar and the Persistence of Nowruz in Iran's Cultural Identity
Under the Revolving Dome: Poems by Abbas Amanat
