M. A. R. Barker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (born 1930-11-03) is a retired professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies who has written several fantasy novels under the pen name M. A. R. Barker.

Born in Idaho as Philip Barker, he studied at University of Washington under Melville Jacobs. At the age of 21 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study Indian languages. He attended Berkley for graduate studies and wrote a dissertation on Klamath language. He worked in the McGill University, and from 1972 at the University of Minnesota, where he would chair the Departmant of South Asian studies.

He has studied languages including Urdu and Balochi and written many publications related to those languages.

In 1951, on his first trip to India he converted to Islam 'for purely theological reasons. It seemed like a more logical religion.'(Fine, 1983)

In his youth, he created the world of Tékumel, a fantasy world based on ancient India, the Middle East, the Aztecs and Maya, and other non-European sources. Tékumel has spawned four professionally-published roleplaying games over the course of the years:

Empire of the Petal Throne, published in 1975 by TSR, Inc.
Swords & Glory, published in 1983 by Gamescience.
Gardasiyal: Adventures in Tékumel, published in 1994 by Theater of the Mind.
Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, published in 2005 by Guardians of Order.

Barker has also written five novels set in the world of Tékumel: Man of Gold and Flamesong were published by Daw Books in the 1984 and 1985, respectively. In the 2000s, three more books were published by Zottola: Prince of Skulls (2002), Lords of Tsámra (2003), and Death of Kings (2003).

Due to a publishing irregularity, Lords of Tsámra comes before Prince of Skulls in chronological reading order.

He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

[edit] Trivia

Although his birth name is Philip and is known as "Phil" to his friends, Barker is not the "Phil Barker" who wrote several ancient-period miniatures games. Nevertheless, he still frequently signs himself as "Phil" in correspondence. In an interesting coincidence, the miniatures game author Philip Barker became interested in Tékumel and included army lists for various nations of Tékumel in his Hordes of the Things wargame rules.