Virani, Shafique

Full Research Description:
Professor Shafique Virani is a scholar of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto. He was previously on the faculty of Harvard University and was later the Head of World Humanities at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. After earning a joint honors degree with distinction in Religious Studies and Middle East Studies and a master's degree in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montréal, he completed an AM and PhD at Harvard University. His doctoral thesis was awarded "Best Dissertation of the Year" by the Foundation for Iranian Studies, earned Harvard University's Ilse Lichtenstadter Memorial Publication Prize, and was recognized by the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award of the Middle East Studies Association as "a path-breaking work of Islamic history." It was also named International Book of the Year by the government of Iran, which invited him to Tehran as an official guest of state for the awards ceremony.

Professor Virani's research focuses on Islamic history, philosophy, Sufism, Shi'ism (both Twelver and Ismaili), and Islamic literatures in Arabic, Persian and South Asian languages. He has contributed articles to the Journal of the American Oriental Society, the Encyclopaedia of Religion, the Annual of Urdu Studies and several other academic journals and books. He also served on the board of editors for the Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review. His book, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation, is published by Oxford University Press.