Ian Almond

Ian Almond (born 1969, Skipton, England) is a literary scholar and writer. He is Professor of World Literature at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

Educated in the UK, Almond received his PhD in Literature at Edinburgh University. He worked for University of Bari (Italy), Erciyes University and Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Frei University (Germany), and Georgia State University, before coming to Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Qatar in 2013.

His specializations consist of Post-colonial theory, South Asian literature, representations of Islam and world literature. He's particularly known for his works on Islam. He is the author of five books. His books have been translated into several languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Korean, Indonesian and Bosnian/Serbo-Croat.

As a historian, Almond seems to be most interested in showing how Islam has been an overlooked factor in the formation of Europe. Two Faiths, One Banner is a history of Muslim-Christian military alliances in Europe. In History of Islam in German Thought (ISBN 978-0415897792), Almond shows that Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche and Kant knew a lot more about Islam than they let on. In his work on philosophy, Almond argues that many postmodernists rely on an Orientalist stock of tropes when it comes to writing about Islam. In his writings on literature, Almond seems to be most interested in exposing the repressed spirituality of allegedly secular authors.

Bibliography

• Sufism and Deconstruction: Sufism and deconstruction : a comparative study of Derrida and Ibn ʻArabi. New York ; London : Routledge, 2004. ISBN 978-0415578974

the Arabic translation of the book was shortlisted (one of 7) for the largest literary prize in existence, the Sheikh Zayed Book Prize (2011 – the first prize is worth $200,000.)

• The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations of Islam from Foucault to Baudrillard. London : I.B. Tauris, 2007 ISBN 978-1845113988
• Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims marched with Christians across Europe's battlegrounds. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0674061767
• History of Islam in German Thought from Leibniz to Nietzsche. New York: Routledge, 2010. ISBN 978-0415897792
• The Thought of Nirad C. Chaudhuri. London: Cambridge University Press, 2015. ISBN 9781107094437

External links

• http://www.english.gsu.edu/9694.html
• http://sfs-georgetown.academia.edu/IanAlmond
• http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674061767