Email: contact@hawramani.com | Twitter
Languages: English, Arabic, Persian / Farsi, Southern Kurdish
I am the creator of the Arabic Lexicon and the Hadith Transmitters Encyclopedia.
I am a US-based Islamic studies researcher, software engineer and writer. As of 2024, due to five years of illness I have mostly ceased the research aspect of Islamic studies, while using my occasional periods of good health to finish Islamic/Arabic projects I had begun in or before 2019–mostly non-fiction books I wanted to write.
I’m not really important enough to speak more about myself, but as some people ask me for further information about what schools and opinions I follow, below is an attempt:
I consider myself a mainstream Sunni Muslim. I’m no modernist or archaist, no Westernizer or Easternizer, no liberal or conservative, I am suspicious of intellectuals although one myself, I believe in following the truth wherever it leads (I’m not claiming to be good at this), and I believe God is greater than religion. I do not take my own opinions seriously and will seldom care to defend them, because I do not believe in “opinion”, only in evidence, data and probabilities. I am not a cold logician, however, and consider a personal relationship with God the most important aspect of religion.
As someone able to interpret the Quran and verify hadiths, I reserve the right to have my own opinions about many religious matters, although I would never consider myself an authority to be followed, and on this site whenever I have given an opinion, I have made sure to provide supporting fatwas from respected mainstream scholars and authorities.
I consider everything I have written on this site a work in progress, liable to change at any time when I find better evidence or correct errors in my thinking. I do not stand behind anything I have said because that is not my style; my style is to show you my thought processes and let you do whatever you like with them. At least, these are ideals I hope to follow.
I love the Islamic scholarly tradition and consider all scholars, past and present, from all schools of thought, to be my beloved colleagues working on the same task. I am not dedicated to following any madhhab or scholar. The scholars I am closest to (on many issues) include Imam al-Bukhārī, al-Āmidī, Ibn al-Jawzī, and Ibn Taymiyya among the classical ones, and M. A. Drāz (al-Azhar scholar), Muhammad al-Ghazāli (al-Azhar scholar), Yusuf al-Qaraḍāwī (al-Azhar scholar) and Yasir Qadhi among the modern ones. Iʾm often closest to the Atharī and Mālīkī school in my legal thinking.
Self-Education
As I am self-educated in Islamic studies, below is a usually up-to-date list of potentially relevant books I’ve read as a dubious alternative to academic degrees, to show some of the influences that go into my thinking.
Islamic Studies
Arabic Books
630’s
- The Quran
870’s
- Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (9 vols.) (d. 870)
- Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (7 vols.) (d. 875)
1060’s
- Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, The Book of Predestination (Kitāb al-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-Qadar) (the narrations alone) (d. 1066)
1200’s
- Ibn al-Jawzī, Quarry of the Mind (Ṣayd al-Khāṭir) (d. 1201)
- Ibn al-Jawzī, The Manners of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (Ādāb al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī) (d. 1201)
- Ibn al-Jawzī, An Introduction to the Study of the Quran (Funūn al-Afnān fī ʿUyūn ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān) (d. 1201)
1400’s
- Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī and Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Tilmisānī, The Mother of Demonstrations and Commentary on the Mother of Demonstrations (Umm al-Barāhīn wa Sharḥ Umm al-Barāhīn) (1490’s)
1700’s
- Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-ʿAdawī al-Dardīr, Commentary on the delicate pearl in the science of monotheism (Sharḥ al-Kharīda al-bahīya fī ʿilm al-tawḥīd) (d. 1786-1787 CE)
1940’s
- ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Jawdat al-Saḥḥar, Abu Dhar: Ascetic Communist (Abū Dhar al-Ghaffārī: Al-Ishtirākī al-Zāhid) (1943)
1950’s
- ʿAlī al-Wardī, The Spiritual Advice-peddlers of the Rulers (Wuʿʿāẓ al-Salāṭīn) (1954)
- ʿAlī al-Wardī,The Comedy of the Human Intellect (Mahzala al-ʿAql al-Basharī) (1955)
- ʿAlī al-Wardī, Morality: That Which is Lacking in Moral Resources (al-Akhlāq: al-Ẓāʾiʿ min al-Mawārid al-Khalqīya) (1958)
1960’s
- Sayyid Qutb, Milestones (Maʿālim fī l-Ṭarīq) (1960)
- ʿAlī al-Wardī, Logic of Ibn Khaldun (Manṭiq Ibn Khaldūn) (1962)
- Muhammad Qutb, Man between Materialism and Islam (al-Insān bayn al-Māddīya w-al-Islām) (1962)
- ʿAlī al-Ṭanṭāwī, A General Introduction to the Religion of Islam (Taʿrīf ʿām bi-Dīn al-Islām) (1969)
- Saʿīd Hawwā, God, Glory to Him (Allāh Jalla Jalāluh) (1969)
1970’s
- Yusuf al-Qaradawī, The Existence of God (Wūjūd Allāh) (1970)
1980’s
- Ṣalāḥ ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Khālidī, Sayyid Qutb from Birth to Martyrdom (Sayyid Quṭb min al-Mīlād ilā al-Istishhād) (1983)
- Bulqāsim al-Ghāli, Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī and His Theological Views (Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī wa-Āraʾuhu al-ʿAqdīya) (1989)
- Mohammed al-Ghazali, Prophetic Tradition between the People of Fiqh and the People of Hadith (Al-Sunnah al-Nabawīya bayn Ahl al-Fiqh wa Ahl al-Ḥadīth) (1989)
- Muhammad Qutb, The Issue of Women’s Liberation (Qaẓīya Taḥrir al-Marʾa) (1989)
- Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, Ṣaḥīḥ Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr wa-Ziyādatuh (Al-Fatḥ al-Kabīr) (2 vols.) (1989)
1990’s
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi, The Fiqh of Priorities (Fiqh al-Awlawīyāt) (1995)
2000’s
- Aḥmad Muṣtafā Faḍlīya, Muhammad Abdullah Draz: Studies by His Students and Contemporaries (Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Drāz: Dirāsāt wa-Buḥūth bi-Aqlām Talāmidhatih wa-Muʿāṣirīh) (2007)
- ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Maghribī, Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī and His Kalām Opinions (Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī wa-Āraʾuhu al-Kalāmīya) (2009)
2010’s
- Muḥammad ibn al-Mukhtār al-Shanqīṭī, The Philosopher of the Quran, Muhammad Abdullah Draz: His Life and Works (Faylasūf al-Qurʾān al-Karīm Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Drāz: Ḥayātuh wa-Āthāruh) (2017)
English Books
1910’s
- Adam Mez, The Renaissance of Islam (in English, written 1917, translated 1937)
1960’s
- W. Montgomery Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali (1963)
- J. J. Saunders (ed.), The Muslim World on the Eve of Europe’s Expansion (1966)
1970’s
- J. J. Saunders, Muslims & Mongols (d. 1972, published 1977)
1980’s
- Robin Wright, In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade (1989)
1990’s
- George Makdisi, The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West (1990)
- Nicholas Heer (ed.), Islamic Law and Jurisprudence: Studies in Honor of Farhat J. Ziadeh (1990)
- Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (1992)
- Tariq Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (1994)
- Josef Van Ess, Theology and Society in the Second and Third Century of the Hijra (1991-1997) (4 vols.) (John O’Kane and Gwendolin Goldbloom translation 2017-2018)
- Yasin Dutton, The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qur’an, the Muwatta and Madinan Amal (PhD dissertation) (1999)
- Murteza Bedir, The Early Development of Hanafi Usul al-Fiqh (PhD dissertation) (1999)
2000’s
- Harald Motzki, The Biography of Muhammad: The Issue of the Sources (2000)
- Forough Jahanbakhsh, Islam, Democracy and Religious Modernism in Iran (1953-2000): From Bazargan to Soroush (2001)
- Valerie Gonzalez, Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture (2001)
- Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (2003)
- Ziauddin Sardar, Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim (2004)
- Annabel Keeler, Sufi Hermeneutics: The Qur’an Commentary of Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī (2006)
- Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (2006)
- Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism (2007)
- Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet (2007)
- Jonathan A. C. Brown, The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim (2007)
- Tim Winter (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology (2008)
- M. A. Draz, The Moral World of the Qur’an (published in French in 1951, English in 2008)
- Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazālı̄’s Philosophical Theology (2009)
2010’s
- Yossef Rapoport and Shahab Ahmed (eds.), Ibn Taymiyya and His Times (2010)
- John Walbridge, God and Logic in Islam: The Caliphate of Reason (2011)
- Nidhal Guessoum, Islam’s Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science (2011)
- Ahmed El-Shamsy, The Canonization of Islamic Law: A Social and Intellectual History (2013)
- Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf, Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period (2013)
- Jonathan A. C. Brown, Misquoting Muhammad (2014)
- Kenneth Garden, The First Islamic Reviver: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and His Revival of the Religious Sciences (2014)
- A.S. Amin, Conflicts of Fitness: Islam, America, and Evolutionary Psychology (2015)
- Bassam Saeh, The Miraculous Language Of The Qur’an: Evidence Of Divine Origin (2015)
- Karen Bauer, Gender Hierarchy in the Qurʾān (2015)
- Ulrich Rudolph, Al-Maturidi and the Development of Sunni Theology in Samarqand (2015)
- Ali Ezzatyar, The Last Mufti of Iranian Kurdistan (2016)
- Henri Lauzière, The Making of Salafism: Islamic Reform in the Twentieth Century (2016)
- Sabine Schmidtke (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology (2016)
- Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam: The Importance of Being Islamic (2016)
- Christopher de Bellaigue, The Islamic Enlightenment The Struggle Between Faith and Reason (2017)
- G. W. Bowersock, The Crucible of Islam (2017)
- Shahab Ahmed, Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (2017)
- M. A. Draz and Basma Abdelgafar, Morality in the Qur’an: The Greater Good of Humanity (2018)
- Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation: A Study of Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql (2019)
- Omar Farahat, The Foundation of Norms in Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology (2019)
- Hatem al-Haj, Between the God of the Prophets and the God of the Philosophers: Reflections of an Athari on the Divine Attributes (2020)
Kurdish Books
- Said Nursi, Message to the Ill (Payāmī Bīmārān) (d. 1960)
- Said Nursi, Message of “I” (Payāmī Min) (d. 1960)
- Said Nursi, Message to the Elderly (Payāmī Pīrān) (d. 1960)
- Barham, Brother Naser Sobhani: Martyr of Freedom of Speech (Shahīdī Āzādī Bīrūřā kāka Nāṣirī Subḥānī) (2006)
- Taḥsīn Ḥama Gharīb, The Last Ones: The Last Mystic, the Last Philosopher, the Last Jurist. Reading the Thought of Said Nursi, Ahmad Moftizadeh and Naser Subhani (Dwāyīnakān: Dwāyīn ʿĀrif, Dwāyīn Faylasūf, Dwāyīn Faqīh. Khwendnaway Fīkrī Saʿīd Nūrsī w Aḥmadī Muftīzāda w Nāṣirī Subḥānī.
- Sarwat Abdullah, Ahmad Moftizadeh: A Gateway to an Unknown Struggle (Māmostā Aḥmadī Muftīzāda: Darwāzayak bo Khabātekī Nanāsrāw) (2010)
- Sarwat Abdullah, A Collection of Ahmad Moftizadeh Quotes (Kharmanek la wta Zeřīnakānī kāk Aḥmadī Muftīzāda) (2014)
Farsi Books
- Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, The Proper Etiquette of the Formal Prayer (Khushuʿ wa Niyāyish dar Namāz) (d. 1393)
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Worship in Islam (ʿIbādat dar Islām) (1961)
- Mustafa Khorramdel, The Nūr Commentary on the Quran (Tafsīr-i Nūr) (1992)
- Ahmad Moftizadeh, Islamic Government (Ḥukūmat-i Islāmī) (1980)
- Naser Sobhani, Custodianship and Leadership (Wilāyat wa Imāmat) (c. 1989)
- Naser Sobhani, Proof of God’s Existence (Ithbāt-i Wujūd-i Khudā) (c. 1989)
The Arabic Language
2010’s
- Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn, Commentary on Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyya (Sharḥ Alfiyyat Ibn Mālik) (2012)
- El Said Badawi, Michael Carter and Adrian Gully, Modern Written Arabic: A Comprehensive Grammar (2013)
- Mohammad T. Alhawary, Arabic Grammar in Context (2016)
- Faruk Abu-Chacra, Arabic: An Essential Grammar (2018)
- Peter John Glanville, The Lexical Semantics of the Arabic Verb (2018)
Sociology, Human Ethology and the Life Sciences
1850’s
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)
1960’s
- James Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968)
1980’s
- Thomas Sowell, Ethnic America: A History (1981)
1990’s
- Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993)
- David Stove, Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity, and Other Fables of Evolution (d. 1994)
- Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture: A World View (1995)
- Thomas Sowell, Migrations and Cultures: A World View (1996)
- Matt Ridley, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species In 23 Chapters (1999)
2000’s
- Joan Roughguarden, Evolution’s Rainbow (2004)
- Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth (2004)
- Catherine Johnson and Temple Grandin, Animals in Translation (2005)
- Peter Richerson and Richard Boyd, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution (2005)
- Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2015)
- James Watson, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science (2007)
- Nicholas Wade, The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures (2009)
2010’s
- David W. Deamer, First Life: Discovering the Connections Between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began (2011)
- Addy Pross, What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology (2012)
- Maryanne L. Fisher, Justin R. Garcia and Rosemarie Sokol Chang (eds.), Evolution’s Empress: Darwinian Perspectives on the Nature of Women (2013)
- Virginia Morell, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures (2013)
- Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2014)
- Richard C. Francis, Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World (2015)
- Alister E. McGrath, Dawkins’ God: From The Selfish Gene to The God Delusion (2015)
- Kevin N. Laland, Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind (2017)
Western Philosophy and Ideas (Books)
340’s BC
- Plato, Euthyphro (d. 347 BC)
- Plato, The Apology (d. 347 BC)
- Plato, Crito (d. 347 BC)
- Plato, Phaedo (d. 347 BC)
- Plato, Symposium (d. 347 BC)
- Plato, Republic (d. 347 BC)
1530’s
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)
1610’s
- The King James Version of the Bible (1611) (Old Testament and Gospels only)
1690’s
- Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (1692)
1860’s
- John Ruskin, Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy (1861)
1870’s
- Jakob Burckhardt, Reflections on History (1870-1871)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Preface to The Greek State (1871)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (1873)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878)
1880’s
- Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
1900’s
- Otto Weininger, Sex and Character (1903)
1930’s
- Eric Gill, An Essay on Typography (1931)
- Albert Jay Nock, The Theory of Education in the United States (1932)
- Albert Jay Nock, Isaiah’s Job (1936)
- George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
- C. S. Lewis, Rehabilitations and Other Essays (1939)
1940’s
- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (1940)
- C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)
- T. S. Eliot, Notes toward the Definition of Culture (1948)
- C. S. Lewis, Transposition and Other Addresses (1949)
- Robert Maynard Hutchins, St. Thomas and the World State (Aquinas Lecture) (1949)
1950’s
- Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth (1950)
1960’s
- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960)
- C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (1961)
- Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
- Susanne K. Langer, An Introduction to Symbolic Logic (1967)
- John Nef (ed.), Towards World Community (1968)
1980’s
- Mortimer J. Adler, How to Think About God (1980)
- Roger Scruton, The Meaning of Conservatism (1980)
- Jonathan Barnes, Aristotle (1982)
- John A. Hall, Powers and Liberties: The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West (1985)
- Roger Scruton, Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation (1986)
- William Hasker, God, Time and Knowledge (1989)
1990’s
- Daniel Amneus, The Garbage Generation (1990)
- Paul Woodruff, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War (1993)
- W. Norris Clarke, Person and Being (Aquinas Lecture) (1993)
- David Stove, What’s Wrong with Benevolence: Happiness, Private Property, and the Limits of Enlightenment (d. 1994)
- Roger Scruton, A Short History of Modern Philosophy (1995)
- Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy (1996)
- J. J. Clarke, Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought (1997)
- Neil Howe and William Strauss, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy (1997)
- Tzvetan Todorov, Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism (1998)
- William Hasker, The Emergent Self (1999)
2000’s
- Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction (2000)
- Christopher Butler, Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
- Samir Okasha, Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
- Christopher Shields, The Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy (2003)
- John Piper, Justin Taylor, and Paul Kjoss Helseth, Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity (2003)
- Raymond Tallis, Why the Mind Is Not a Computer: A Pocket Lexicon of Neuromythology (2004)
- Edward Craig, Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2005)
- Shadia Drury, The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (Updated Edition) (2005)
- Roger Scruton, Beauty (2008)
2010’s
- Fritz Allhoff (ed.), Philosophies of the Sciences: A Guide (2010)
- David Wengrow, What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West (2010)
- Christopher Butler, Modernism: A Very Short Introduction (2010)
- Judith Brown and Anthony Parel (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi (2011)
- Babette Babich, Alfred Denker & Holger Zaborowski (eds.), Nietzsche & Heidegger (2012) (English-language chapters alone)
- Ricardo Duchesne, The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (2012)
- Roger Scruton, The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures (2012)
- Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society (2012)
- Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)
- William Lane Craig, God Over All Divine Aseity and the Challenge of Platonism (2016)
- Jacobus Erasmus, The Kalām Cosmological Argument: A Reassessment (2018)
- Benjamin H. Arbour (ed.), Philosophical Essays Against Open Theism (2019)
Theology and Metaphysics
1990’s
- Clark H. Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, David Basinger, The Openness of God A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God (1994)
Christianity
2000’s
- Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts (2005)
Literature (Excluding Novels)
2100 BC
- Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BC)
750 BC
- Homer, The Iliad (c. 750 BC)
- Homer, The Odyssey (c. 750 BC)
550’s
- Procopius, Anekdota: The Secret History of the Court of Justinian (d. c. 554)
1020’s
- Beowulf (c. 975-1025) (prose translation)
1400’s
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400)
1790’s
- Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (c. 1791)
- Giacomo Casanova, Memoirs of Casanova (12 vols.) (d. 1798)
1850’s
- Nalî, The Collected Poems of Nalî (d. 1856) (Kurdish)
1890’s
- Alice James, The Diary of Alice James (d. 1892)
1910’s
- C. S. Lewis, Spirits in Bondage (1919)
1920’s
- Edwin Arlington Robinson, Poems: Selected and Edited by Scott Donaldson (1897-1923)
- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)
- C. S. Lewis, Dymer (1926)
- E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (1927)
1930’s
- C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933)
- C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (1936)
- Cleanth Brooks, Jr. and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Poetry: An Anthology for College Students (1939)
- E. M. W. Tillyard and C. S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (1939)
1940’s
- C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)
- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)
- C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945)
- C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald: An Anthology (1946)
1950’s
- C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955)
- Elizabeth Drew, Poetry: A Modern Guide to Its Understanding and Enjoyment (1959)
1960’s
- Arthur Crew Inman, The Inman Diary (2 vols, ed. Daniel Aaron) (d. 1963)
- C. S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis (1905-1963) (3 vols.)
- C. S. Lewis, Poems (1964)
- C. S. Lewis, On Stories (1966)
1970’s
- Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (1975)
1980’s
- Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems (1981)
1990’s
- Dinah Livingstone, The Poetry Handbook: For Readers and Writers (1993)
- Timothy Steele, Sapphics and Uncertainties (1995)
- Sarah Gorham, The Tension Zone (1996)
- Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (1997)
- Annie Finch, A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women (1999)
2000’s
- Rita Dove, Collected Poems: 1974-2004 (2004)
- David Lehman, The Oxford Book of American Poetry (2006)
- Richard S. Kennedy and Donald S. Hair, The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life by (2007)
2010’s
- Huda al-Marashi, First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story (2018)
Novels and Stories
Below is an incomplete listing of fiction I have read, for those interested to know about my non-scholarly reading habits. I read many best-selling contemporary novels when I was a teenager since I did not know better, those books are not listed. The list only contains the books that I think were worth the effort, books I am not ashamed to admit to having read or that I am still fond of.
1750’s
- Voltaire, Candide (1759)
1770’s
- Frances Burney, Evelina, Or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance Into the World (1778)
1790’s
- Jane Austen, Lady Susan (1794)
1800’s
- François-René de Chateaubriand, Atala (1801)
1810’s
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Jane Austen, Emma (1815)
- Jane Austen, Persuasion (1817)
1840’s
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Double (1846)
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
- Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847)
- Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847)
1850’s
- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
- Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) (In Arabic and English, abridged)
- George MacDonald, Phantastes (1854)
- Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days (1857) (abridged)
- George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859)
1860’s
- George Eliot, The Mill On The Floss (1860)
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861) (In Farsi, Arabic and English, abridged)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)
- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1869) (abridged)
1870’s
- George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871)
- Henry James, Watch and Ward (1873)
- Henry James, Roderick Hudson (1875)
- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) (abridged)
- Henry James, The American (1877)
- Henry James, The Europeans (1878)
1880’s
- Lewis Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880)
- Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper (1881) (In Farsi and English, abridged)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study In Scarlet (1887)
1890’s
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) (abridged)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
1900’s
- Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903)
- Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905)
1910’s
- Maxim Gorky, My Childhood (1913)
- Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (1913)
- James Joyce, Dubliners (1914)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear (1915)
- W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow (1917)
- W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
1920’s
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
- Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall (1928)
- Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
1930’s
- Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies (1930)
- Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm (1932)
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937)
- C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
1940’s
- C. S. Lewis, Perelandra (1943)
- C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (1945)
- George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1945)
- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
1950’s
- Robert R. Heinlein, Farmer in the Sky (1950)
- C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
- C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian (1951)
- C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
- C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (1953)
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
- C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy (1954)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers (1954)
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)
- C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (1955)
- C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (1956)
- C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (1956)
- C. S. Lewis, Short Stories (-1958)
1960’s
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
- Evelyn Waugh, The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh (covers stories from 1925-1962)
- Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)
- Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
- Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah (1969)
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (1969)
1970’s
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (d. 1973, published 1977)
- Terry Pratchett, The Dark Side of the Sun (1976)
- Frank Herbert, Children of Dune (1976)
- Stephen King, The Stand (1978)
- Aziz Nesin, The Idiot (1970’s?) (in Kurdish translation)
1980’s
- Frank Herbert, God-Emperor of Dune (1981)
- Stephen King, Different Seasons (1982)
- Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic (1983)
- Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune (1984)
- Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)
- Paul Amir, The Lord of Alamut (1985) (in Farsi translation)
- Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic (1986)
- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites (1987)
- Terry Pratchett, Mort (1987)
- Terry Pratchett, Sourcery (1988)
- Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters (1988)
- Terry Pratchett, Pyramids (1989)
- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards! (1989)
1990’s
- Terry Pratchett, Eric (1990)
- Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures (1990)
- Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad (1991)
- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man (1991)
- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (1992)
- Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies (1992)
- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms (1993)
- Terry Pratchett, Soul Music (1994)
- Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times (1994)
- David Gutterson, Snow Falling on Cedars (1994)
- Terry Pratchett, Maskerade (1995)
- Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay (1996)
- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather (1996)
- Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (1996)
- Terry Pratchett, Jingo (1997)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997)
- Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent (1998)
- Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum (1998)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives (1998)
- Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
- Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant (1999)
- Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor (1999)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
2000’s
- Terry Pratchett, The Truth (2000)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the the Goblet of Fire (2000)
- Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero (2001)
- Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time (2001)
- Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2001)
- Terry Pratchett, Night Watch (2002)
- Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)
- Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment (2003)
- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (2003)
- Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (2004)
- Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky (2004)
- Roberto Bolaño, 2666 (2004)
- Terry Pratchett, Thud! (2005)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
- Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith (2006)
- Terry Pratchett, Making Money (2007)
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
- Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals (2009)
2010’s
- Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight (2010)
- Terry Pratchett, Snuff (2011)
- Sardar Abdallah, Attila, the Last of the Lovers (Ātilā, Ākhir al-ʿUshshāq) (2018) (Arabic)
- Uzma Jalaluddin, Ayesha, At Last (2018)
Popular Science Books and Other Non-Fiction
1990’s
- Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? (1994)
- Simon Singh, The Code Book (1999)
2000’s
- Roy Fielding, Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures (PhD dissertation) (2000)
- Thomas Sowell, A Personal Odyssey (2001)
- Timothy Gowers, Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
- John Polkinghorne, Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
- Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything (2002)
- Anil Ananthaswamy, The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth’s Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe (2003)
- Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science (2003)
- James Gleick, Isaac Newton (2003)
- Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved (2004)
- Steve McConnell, Code Complete 2nd edition (2004)
- Stephen Hawking, A Briefer History of Time (2005)
- George Musser, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory (2008)
2010’s
- Clifford Nass and Corina Yen, The Man who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us about Human Relationships (2010)
- Jay-Z, Decoded (2010)
- Oliver Sacks, The Mind’s Eye (2010)
- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2010)
- Donald J. Trump and Robert T. Kiyosaki, The Midas Touch (2011)
- Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It (2011)
- Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad (2011)
- Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
- Brian Alexander and Larry Young, The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex, and the Science of Attraction (2012)
- Rebecca Stott, Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution (2012)
- Caleb Scharf, Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos (2012)
- Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks (2013)
- Aziz Ansari, Modern Romance (2013)
- Jonah Berger, Contagious: Why Things Catch On (2013)
- Andreas Wagner, Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution’s Greatest Puzzle (2014)
- Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (2014)
- Ja Rule, Unruly: The Highs and Lows of Becoming a Man (2014)
- Joe Dispenza, You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter (2014)
- Sandeep Jauhar, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician (2014)
- Michael Brooks, At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise (2014)
- Rebecca Mead, My Life in Middlemarch (2014)
- Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (2014)
- Mark Schatzker, The Dorito Effect (2015)
- Michael Tennesen, The Next Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man (2015)
Economics (Books)
- Michael Hudson, E. Peshine Smith: A Study in Protectionist Growth Theory and American Sectionalism (1968)
- Charles Wheelan, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (2002)
- Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (2007)
- Thomas Sowell, Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (2008)
- Thomas Sowell, Economic Facts and Fallacies (2011)
- Ha-Joon Chang, Economics: The User’s Guide (2014)
History (Books)
1980’s
- Gale E. Christiansen, In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and His Times (1984)
2000’s
- Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History (2003)
- H.W. Brands, Benjamin Franklin: The Original American (Portable Professor Series) (2004)
- David McCullough, 1776 (2005)
- Jonathan Clements, A Brief History of the Vikings: The Last Pagans Or the First Modern Europeans? (2005)
- Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2007)
- Thomas Keneally, The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story of the Founding of Australia (2007)
- James Reston Jr., Defenders of the Faith: Christianity and Islam Battle for the Soul of Europe, 1520-1536 (2009)
2010’s
- Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (2013)
- Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (2014)
- Philip Line, The Vikings and Their Enemies: Warfare in Northern Europe, 750-1100 (2014)
- S. Frederick Starr , Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane (2015)