Hossein Nasr

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This page is about the scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. For other people named Nasr, see Nasr (disambiguation)
Nasr is an internationally acclaimed scholar [1].
Nasr is an internationally acclaimed scholar [1].

Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Persian: سيد حسين نصر), a professor of the department of Islamic studies at George Washington University, is a leading philosopher and historian of science. He is the author of many scholarly books and articles. [1]

Nasr is a lifelong student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, Persian philosopher and renowned scholar of comparative religion, is a prominent authority in the fields of Islamic esoterism, sufism, philosophy of science, and metaphysics.

Nasr is a well-known and highly respected intellectual figure both in the West and the Islamic world. Nasr has spoken at academic conferences and seminars, university and public lectures, and also radio and television programs in his areas of expertise. He has been a teacher and scholar for over four decades.

Professor Nasr speaks and writes based on the doctrine and the viewpoints of the perennial philosophy on subjects such as philosophy, religion, spirituality, music, art, architecture, science, literature, civilizational dialogues, and the natural environment.

Nasr speaks English, French, Persian, and Arabic fluently. He is the cousin of Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo and the father of American academic Vali Nasr, a leading expert on political Islam.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years and education

Nasr was born in 1933 in south-central Tehran to Seyyed Valiallah, who was physician to the Persian royal family. His parents were originally from Kashan. Nasr was sent to the United States for education at a young age of twelve. He there first attended Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey and in 1950 graduated as the valedictorian of his class and also winner of the Wyclifte Award which was the school's highest honor given to the most outstanding all-round student.

A scholarship offered by MIT in Physics made him the first Iranian undergraduate to attend that university.[3] There, he also began studying under Giorgio Di Santillana and others in various other branches such as metaphysics and philosophy. During his studies there he became acquainted with the works of the prominent perennialist authority Frithjof Schuon. This school of thought has shaped Professor Nasr's life and thinking ever since. Professor Nasr has been a disciple of Frithjof Schuon for over fifty years and his works are based on the doctrine and the viewpoints of the perennial philosophy.

Upon his graduation from MIT, Nasr obtained a Master's degree in geology and geophysics in 1956, and went on to pursue his Ph.D. degree in the history of science and learning at Harvard University. He planned to write his dissertation under the supervision of George Sarton, but Sarton passed away before he could begin his dissertation work and so he wrote his dissertation under the direction of I. Bernard Cohen, Hamilton Gibb, and Harry Wolfson.

At the age of twenty-five, Nasr graduated with his Ph.D. from Harvard completing his first book, Science and Civilization in Islam. His doctoral dissertation entitled "Conceptions of Nature in Islamic Thought" was published in 1964 by Harvard University Press as An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines.

[edit] Back to Iran

Seyyed Hosein Nasr began his teaching career in 1955 when he was still a young doctoral student at Harvard University. He became a full professor by the age of 30.

Over the years, he has taught and trained numerous students who have come from the different parts of the world, many of whom have become important and prominent scholars in their fields of study.

After Harvard, Nasr returned to Iran as a professor at Tehran University, and then at Arya Mehr University (Sharif University) where he was appointed president in 1972. He was Dean of Faculty, and Academic Vice-Chancellor of Tehran University from 1968 to 1972. Later on he was also appointed as Chancellor of Melli University (Beheshti University) in the mid 1970s.

Professor Nasr was also a student of Allameh Tabatabaei, a spiritual scholar whose commentary on the Qur'an Tafsir al-Mizan is widely known as one of the best commentaries. In the 1970s, Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran appointed professor Nasr as head of the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, the first academic institution to be conducted in accordance with the intellectual principles of the Traditionalist School. During that time, Nasr, Tabatabaei, William Chittick, Kenneth Morgan, Sachiko Murata, Toshihiko Izutsu, and Henry Corbin would meet and hold various philosophical discourses. The famous book Shi'ite Islam was one product of this period.

This experiment ended with the arrival of the Islamic revolution, which forced Professor Nasr to emigrate to the United States.

[edit] Return to the US

Upon his return to the west, Nasr took up positions at University of Edinburgh and then Temple University followed by The George Washington University, where he has been since 1984 to the present day.

Nasr helped with the planning and expansion of Islamic and Iranian studies academic programs in several universities such as Princeton, the University of Utah, and the University of Southern California.

Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr is currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University.

Professor Nasr on November 9,2006 gave a lecture on Islam at Eckerd College and on November 10,2006 gave a lecture on What is Sacred to the College's Freshmen class.

[edit] Awards and honors

[edit] Works

Nasr is the author of over fifty books and five hundred articles on Islamic science, religion, and the environment, in 4 languages, including:

[edit] Translations

  • Vid det klara morgonljuset, translated by Ashk Dahlén, Preface by professor Jan Hjärpe, Stockholm: Proprius förlag, 2006. ISBN: 9171189297 (Swedish)

[edit] See also

Other religious and traditional scholars

[edit] References

  1. ^ John F Haught, Science and Religion, Georgetown University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-87840-865-7, p.xvii

[edit] External links

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