Levy, Reuben
LEVY, REUBEN
LEVY, REUBEN (1891–1966), British Orientalist. Born in Manchester, Levy became lecturer in Persian language and literature at Oxford University (1920–23). From 1923 to 1926 he taught biblical literature at the Jewish Institute of Religion, New York. On his return to England he taught Persian at Cambridge University; he was appointed professor in 1950. During both world wars Levy served in British Intelligence. From 1918 to 1920 he was in the Iraqi political service.
Apart from editing and translating a number of classical Persian and Arabic texts, Levy wrote two textbooks: The Persian Language (1951) and Persian Literature (1923; repr. 1955), a two-volume work Introduction to the Sociology of Islam (1931–33; second edition, The Social Structure of Islam, 1957), and a commentary with introduction on Deutero-Isaiah (1925).