A Flawed Chapter in Modern Iranian Historiography: The First Century of Iran and Islam

Zakeri finished his Ph.D. studies in Near Eastern History at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City in 1987. The title of his Dissertation was Sasanian Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: the Origins of the 'Ayyaran and Futuwwa (an expanded revised version of this was published, Wiesbaden 1995). He taught medieval and Islamic history courses at the University of Utah (1984-1987). Working as a Research Fellow at the University of Frankfurt, he prepared the results of a research project published as Persian Wisdom in Arabic Garb: 'Ali b. 'Ubayda al-Rayhani (d. 219/834) and his Jawahir al-kilam wa-fara'id al-hikam. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2007 [Awarded the International Book Prize of Iran for the year 2009].

From 01.02.2011 till 01.02.2113 he worked at the department of Arabistik/ Islamwissenschaft at the University of Göttingen (where he is now) on the depictions of a wise king in the early Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes (Nasihat al-muluks; Siyasatnamas), the results of which are being prepared for publication.

Currently he is also finishing a monograph on the life and work of Muhammad b. Khalaf b. al-Marzban (d. 309/921), who was a prolific author and had translated more than fifty ‘books’ from Middle Persian into Arabic. Zakeri has published articles on the Islamic history and Persian/Arabic literatures in the early Islamic period. His main research interest is focused on translations from Middle Persian into Arabic.