Biography

Cyrus Zargar is the Endowed Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor in Islamic Studies. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies in 2008. Zargar’s research interests include Classical Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, Arabic and Persian Sufi Literature, and Ethics in Literature and Film.    

Recent Research Activities

Zargar is currently completing a book titled Religion of Love: Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 1221) and the Sufi Tradition for the Islamic Texts Society. This monograph considers space, time, and praxis in the Persian Sufi poetry of ʿAṭṭār, focusing on the development of sacred symbols. His most recent book, The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism, was published in December of 2017.

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Selected Publications

Books

• The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism. London: Oneworld.
• Sufi Aesthetics:  Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.

Courses

• Spring 2019
• Fall 2018
• Summer 2018