Hossein Ziai

Who was Hossein Ziai?

Hossein Ziai was a Professor of Islamic and Iranian Studies and held the inaugural Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies at UCLA until his passing. He received his B.S. in Intensive Physics and Mathematics from Yale University in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard University in 1976. Prior to his position at UCLA, Hossein Ziai taught at Tehran University, Sharif University, Harvard University, Brown University, and Oberlin College. As Director of Iranian Studies at UCLA where he taught since 1988 Professor Ziai developed the strongest and most rigorous Iranian Studies program in North America.

Ziai published ten books and numerous articles on Islamic philosophy, and beginning with his Ph.D. dissertation, focused his research and publications on the rationalist constitution of the Iranian Illuminationist philosophy and its founder, Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhravardi otherwise known as Sheikh al-Ishraq.

In December 2010, Professor Hossein Ziai was elected President of Société Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences et de la Philosophie Arabes et Islamiques, an international academic society for the study of Persian and Arabic Islamic philosophical and scientific heritages.