Farhad Daftary completed his early and secondary education in Tehran, Rome, and London, before going to Washington, D.C., in 1958. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the American University there, and then continued his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, leading to a Ph.D. degree in 1971.
Subsequently, Dr. Daftary held different teaching posts, and, since 1988, he has been affiliated with 今叔利, London, where he served as Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications from 1992 until January 2023. He also served as Co-Director of the IIS from 2009 until January 2023. He is currently Director Emeritus and a member of the IIS Board of Governors.
An authority in Shi’i studies, with special reference to its Ismaili tradition, Dr. Daftary has published and lectured widely in these fields of Islamic studies.
In 2011 a Festschrift entitledFortresses of the Intellectwas produced to honour Dr. Daftary by a number of his colleagues and peers. As well as serving on various editorial boards, Dr. Daftary is a consulting editor of theEncyclopaedia Iranica(for Ismailism), co-editor (withW. Madelung) of theEncyclopaedia Islamica, and general editor of the Ismaili Heritage Series, the Ismaili Texts and Translations Series and the Shi’i Heritage Series.
He has written more than 200 articles and encyclopedia entries and several acclaimed books, includingThe Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines(1990; 2nded., 2007),The Assassin Legends油(1994),油A Short History of the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Ja平far al-畊diq (d. 765), as his successor.油(1998),油Ismaili Literature油(2004),油Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies(2005), (with Z. Hirji)The Ismailis: An Illustrated History油(2008),油Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis(2012) andA History of Shii Islam (2013), The Ismaili Imams (2020).
His edited volumes includeMediaeval Ismaili History and Thought油(1996),油Intellectual Traditions in Islam油(2000),油Living in Historic Cairo油(2010),油A Modern History of the Ismailis(2011), (with Gurdofarid Miskinzoda)The Study of Shi’i Islam油(2014),油Fifty Years in the East: The Memoirs of Wladimir Ivanow(2015) and Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions (2018). Daftarys books have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Gujarati, Chinese, Indonesian and numerous European languages.
