Daniel, Elton L.

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Daniel, Elton L.

PERSONAL: Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., 1970; University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES: Office— Department of History, University of Hawaii, 2530 Dole St., Sakamaki Hall, Honolulu, HI 96822. E-mail— edaniel@hawaii.edu.

CAREER: Professor and writer. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, professor of history.

WRITINGS

The Political and Social History of Khurasan under Abbasid Rule, 747-820, Bibliotheca Islamica (Minneapolis, MN), 1979.

(Editor and translator, with Hafez Farmayan) A Shi’ite Pilgrimage to Mecca (1885-1886), University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1990.

The History of Iran, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2001.

(Editor) Society and Culture in Qajar Iran: Studies in Honor of Hafez Farmayan, Mazda Publishers (Costa Mesa, CA), 2002.

(With Ali Akbar Mahdi) Culture and Customs of Iran, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2006.

Contributor to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Associate editor for the Encyclopaedia Iranica.

SIDELIGHTS: As a professor of history at the University of Hawaii, Elton L. Daniel teaches classes and conducts research in the areas of Islamic and Middle Eastern history and civilization. He has published several books on related topics, with a particular focus on Iranian history. In The History of Iran, for instance, Daniel covers more than 2, 500 years of Iranian history, beginning with the pre-Islamic era and continuing through the turn of the twenty-first century. In a review for the Middle East Journal, Monica M. Ringer described the volume as “a sophisticated and comprehensive introductory survey of the history of Iran which is, at the same time, an easy read.” She further remarked: “This book would serve equally well as an introduction to Iranian history and as a basic guide to understanding contemporary Iranian politics and culture.”

In 2002 Daniel served as editor of a collection of works paying tribute to Hafez Farmayan, a noted historian of Iran and Islam. Society and Culture in Qajar Iran: Studies in Honor of Hafez Farmayan explores the history of this nineteenth-century Iranian society, including its interactions with Western and neighboring countries. Willem Floor wrote in a review of the book for the Middle East Journal:“Elton Daniel shows that making the pilgrimage to Mecca was more than a spiritual journey, for travel through other Muslim countries and meeting other Muslims did leave its impact. . .. Those who wish to understand better how material conditions, social values, and intellectual perspectives in Iran changed during the 19th century will be enlightened by this nicely printed book.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Middle East Journal, autumn, 2001, Monica M. Ringer, review of The History of Iran, p. 685; spring, 2003, Willem Floor, review of Society and Culture in Qajar Iran: Studies in Honor of Hafez Farmayan, p. 353.