Hamid Algar

Hamid Algar (born September 21, 1940) is a British-American Professor Emeritus of Persian studies at the Faculty of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He writes on Islamic topics, Persian and Arabic literature and the history of Iran, Turkey, the Balkans and Afghanistan. He served on the UC Berkeley faculty for 45 years, 1965 to 2010. Algar remains an active scholar and his research has concentrated on the Islamic history of the Perso-Turkish world, with particular emphasis on Iranian Shi'ism during the past two centuries, and the Naqshbandi Sufi order.

Algar, who was born in England, first converted to Sunni Islam and later chose to follow Shia Islam. He has also translated books written by contemporary Shi'i theologians, like Ruhollah Khomeini's book Islamic Government (''Velayat-e Faqih'') and works by Ali Shariati, Morteza Motahhari, Mahmoud Taleqani and Mujtaba Musavi Lari. Provided by Wikipedia