Rate My Professor Fakhreddin Azimi

Fakhreddin Azimi is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Connecticut. He earned his BA in Political Science from the School of Law and Political Science at Tehran University, achieving the highest grade in the humanities in the nationwide university entrance exam and editing a student journal to which top students and prominent scholars contributed. Azimi pursued his M.Sc. in Politics with special reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and obtained his D.Phil. from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, where he worked with scholars such as Albert Hourani. As a scholar of the history and culture of modern Iran and the Middle East, he maintains wider interests in the Islamicate and Persianate worlds, the epistemology of history, and the history of social science disciplines. His areas of specialty encompass the modern Middle East, Islam, and the socio-political and cultural history of modern Iran. Current research interests include religion, secularity, and the state in modern Iran; modes of domination and legitimation; power, the political, and civic life.

Azimi has authored key books such as The Quest for Democracy in Iran: A Century of Struggle against Authoritarian Rule (Harvard University Press, 2008, paperback 2010), Iran: The Crisis of Democracy, from the Exile of Reza Shah to the Fall of Musaddq (1989, revised paperback 2009; Persian translation 1994, eighth edition 2019), The Identity of Iran: Exploring Manifestations of Nationalism: A Civic Perspective (Agah Publishers, Tehran, 2021, third edition 2022), Reflections on Mosaddeq’s Political Thinking: Essays on Iranian History, Politics and Political Culture (Khojasteh Press, Tehran, 2015), and National Sovereignty and its Enemies: Probing the Record of Mosaddeq’s Opponents (Negareh-ye Aftab, Tehran, 2004, fourth edition 2022). Selected articles include “Historical Cognition and the Taxonomy of Sources” in Iranian Studies (2021), “The Overthrow of the Government of Mosaddeq Reconsidered” in Iranian Studies (2012), and contributions to Encyclopaedia Iranica. He has received the Mossadegh Prize for best book on Iran, the Saidi-Sirjani Award from the International Society for Iranian Studies, and finalist status for the Connecticut Book Award (Non-Fiction) for The Quest for Democracy in Iran. Azimi is a three-time recipient of the Mahteb Mirzaei Memorial Prize for Persian articles and book chapters, and the summer 2020 issue of Negah-e Nou featured extensive appreciation of his scholarship by international scholars.