Leonard Lewisohn 1953-2018

I'm very saddened to report that Dr. Leonard Lewisohn died suddenly on August 6, 2018.

Dr Leonard Lewisohn

Ph.D.,B.A.

Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter,

 Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow in Persian and Sufi Literaure

HERE IS THE STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER:

The staff and students of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, are very sad to announce that, on Monday 6 August 2018, our colleague and friend Dr. Leonard Lewisohn passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. It's a great shock to all of us. Our hearts go out to his wife, his family and his wide network of friends and colleagues.

Lenny was Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Persian and Sufi literature. We will soon make an announcement about more specific initiatives for commemorating him. But, for the moment, our thoughts and prayers are with his close family and the many people worldwide who loved him.

Christine Robins

Director, IAIS



Leonard was the co-director (with Dr. Michael Axworthy) of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies.

He was also the Editor of the Mawlana Rumi Review.

In April 2016, he organised with Dr. Reza Tabandeh a three-day international conference on "Sufis and Mullahs: Sufis and Their Opponents in the Persianate World.”

Dr. Leonard Lewisohn was Senior Lecturer in Persian and Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow in Classical Persian and Sufi Literature at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of the University of Exeter in England where he taught Islamic Studies, Sufism, history of Iran, as well as courses on Persian texts and Persian poetry in translation. He specialized in translation of Persian Sufi poetic and prose texts.

He is the author of Beyond Faith and Infidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari (London: 1995), and the editor of three volumes on The Heritage of Sufism, vol. 1: The Legacy of Mediæval Persian Sufism, vol. 2: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi, vol. 3 (with David Morgan): Late Classical Persianate Sufism: the Safavid and Mughal Period (Oxford: 1999)—covering a millennium of Islamic history.

He was editor of the Mawlana Rumi Review, an annual journal devoted to Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273). He was also editor (with Christopher Shackle) of The Art of Spiritual Flight: Farid al-Din ‘Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition (London: I.B. Tauris 2006), co-translator with Robert Bly of The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door: Thirty Poems of Hafiz (New York: HarperCollins 2008), editor of Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry (London: I.B. Tauris 2010), and editor of The Philosophy of Ecstasy: Rumi and the Sufi Tradition (Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom 2014), and co-editor (with Reza Tabandeh) of Sufis and Mullahs: Sufis and their Opponents in the Persianate World (forthcoming 2018).

Dr. Lewisohn contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, Encyclopedia of Islam(2nd and 3rd editions), Encyclopædia Iranica, Encyclopædia of Philosophy, 2nd Edition, Encyclopædia of Religion, 2nd Edition, Iran Nameh, Iranian Studies, African Affairs, Islamic Culture, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Temenos Academy Review.