Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and
Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 he published a number of essays on current events with a Middle Eastern focus at the
Gatestone Institute, of which he is a Senior Fellow. He was a Senior Editor from 2009 to 2010 at ''
Middle East Quarterly'', a publication of the American think tank
Middle East Forum, where he is also a Fellow.
From 2006-2015 MacEoin wrote a blog entitled ''A Liberal Defence of Israel'', "designed to correct the false impression that Israel is an illiberal, fascist, or apartheid state." In 2007 he authored a report entitled ''The Hijacking of British Islam'', which garnered considerable criticism labelling him as a
neo-conservative and accusations of forgery.
As a novelist, MacEoin wrote under the pen names Daniel Easterman and Jonathan Aycliffe. MacEoin is a former
Baháʼí and wrote in 2009 that he considers himself a
secular humanist.
In early June 2022, MacEoin died at 73 due to
Coronavirus
Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...
complications.
Education and academic career
MacEoin was born in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. He received a B.A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature at the
University of Dublin
The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...
(
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
), an M.A. in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, and
Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
(1975), and a Ph.D. in Persian and Islamic studies at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
(1979).
From 1979 to 1980, he taught English, Islamic Civilization, and Arabic-English translation at
Mohammed V University in
Fez, Morocco
Fez or Fes (; ar, فاس, fās; zgh, ⴼⵉⵣⴰⵣ, fizaz; french: Fès) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès, Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the List of cities in Morocco, second largest city i ...
, resigning from the university shortly after commencing employment there. MacEoin claimed the resignation was due to disputes over contract changes, working environment and payment for his services as a Lecturer. He then taught at
Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...
, but his Saudi sponsors dropped him for teaching "heretical subjects", following which he left academia.
Fellowships
In 1986, he was made Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies at
Durham University
, mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1)
, established = (university status)
, type = Public
, academic_staff = 1,830 (2020)
, administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19)
, chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen
, vice_chan ...
. He was the Royal Literary Fund Fellow, assisting with academic writing at
Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...
from 2005 to 2008. Since 2014 he has been a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
Scholarship on the Baháʼí Faith
MacEoin was an active member of the
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...
from 1966 to 1980, during which time he lectured and wrote in support of his faith. In the late 1970s he wrote a manuscript on the
Bábí movement. As a Baháʼí publishing material on the religion, he was required to submit his material for a
Baháʼí review process, and his manuscript was rejected. He resigned from the Bahá'í Faith and later published the material with
E.J. Brill
Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...
as ''The Sources for Early Bābī Doctrine and History''.
MacEoin went on to write critically of the origins of the Baháʼí Faith, and engaged in several years of writing about it, including 18 articles in ''
Encyclopedia Iranica'' from 1985 to 1990.
In 1982 and 1983 MacEoin wrote two critical articles in the journal ''
Religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
'': "The Babi Concept of Holy War", which viewed the origins of the Bábí movement through the lens of jihad, martyrdom, and political struggles; and "From Babism to Bahá'ísm: Problems of Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion", which continued along the same themes, questioning the number of martyrs and Western re-interpretations of the Bábís. That began a series of public debates in the journal. In 1985 two Baháʼí authors, Afnan and Hatcher, published "Western Islamic Scholarship and Bahá'í Origins" criticising MacEoin's recent articles. MacEoin responded with another article a year later in the same journal, "Bahā'ī fundamentalism and the academic study of the Bābī movement", responding to the criticism.
Further exchanges in the journal ''Religion'' continued. Afnan and Hatcher provided a response that MacEoin tried to discredit them as "outraged fundamentalists", attempted to stigmatise Baháʼí institutions as devious, and attempted to picture MacEoin himself as an objective scholar "persecuted by Baháʼís". MacEoin responded again that, "The real issue is between academic and non-academic approaches to the subject... a believing bacteriologist and mathematician who are trying to defend their religion against what seems to them an attack on its integrity". MacEoin later published "The Crisis in Babi and Bahá'í Studies: Part of a Wider Crisis in Academic Freedom?" in ''British Society for Middle Eastern Studies''.
In 2007, Baháʼí author
Moojan Momen wrote "Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha'i Community", in the journal ''
Religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
'', labelling Denis MacEoin as an "apostate" from the Baháʼí Faith, who "began to write academic papers attacking the Bahá'í Faith", focusing on the
Bahá'í Administration. Momen pointed to MacEoin's comparison of the
persecution of Baháʼís
Persecution of Baháʼís occurs in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world is located. The origins of the persecution stem from a variety of Ba ...
in Iran to the anti-cult movement in the West as particularly egregious. According to Momen, the attacks from MacEoin continued up to 2005.
Publications
Academic
MacEoin published extensively on Islamic topics, contributing to the ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...
'', the ''Oxford Encyclopaedia of Islam in the Modern World'', the ''
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encycl ...
'', the ''Penguin Handbook of Religions'', journals, ''
festschrifts
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
'', and books, and has himself written a number of academic books.
*
*
::Christopher Buck wrote: "''Rituals in Babism and Baha'ism'' is a text-centred, information-rich study of the prescriptive passages of Babi and Bahá'í scriptures...
tis recommended strictly as a sourcebook, so long as the reader is aware that the Babi section is purely documentary and that the Bahá'í chapter treats in a predominantly philological fashion texts and prescriptive practices that are quite unknown to the vast majority of actually-existing Bahá'ís in the world."
*
*
* (Report on radicalism in about 80 schools in the UK)
*
Novels
Since 1986, MacEoin pursued a career as a novelist, having written 26 novels. He used the pen names Daniel Easterman (international thrillers) and Jonathan Aycliffe (
ghost stories
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
).
Daniel Easterman
*''The Last Assassin'' (1984)
*''The Seventh Sanctuary'' (1987)
*''The Ninth Buddha'' (1988)
*''Brotherhood of the Tomb'' (1989)
*''Night of the Seventh Darkness'' (1991)
*''The Name of the Beast'' (1992)
*''New Jerusalems: Reflections on Islam, Fundamentalism and the Rushdie Affair'' (1993)
*''The Judas Testament'' (1994)
*''Day of Wrath''-''Night of the Apocalypse'' (1995)
*''The Final Judgement'' (1996)
*''
K is for Killing'' (1997)
*''Incarnation'' (1998)
*''The Jaguar Mask'' (2000)
*''Midnight Comes at Noon'' (2001)
*''Maroc'' (2002)
*''The Sword'' (2007)
*''Spear of Destiny'' (2009)
Jonathan Aycliffe
*''
Naomi's Room
''Naomi's Room'' is a 1991 horror novel by Northern Irish author Jonathan Aycliffe.
Plot introduction
Pembroke College academic Charles Hillenbrand looks back on his life and his marriage to Laura, who gave up her job at the Fitzwilliam Museum ...
'' (1991)
*''Whispers in the Dark'' (1992)
*''The Vanishment'' (1993)
*''The Matrix'' (1994)
*''The Lost'' (1996)
*''The Talisman'' (1999)
*''A Shadow On the Wall'' (2000)
*''A Garden Lost in Time'' (2004)
*''The Silence of Ghosts'' (2013)
References
Sources
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* (archived)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maceoin, Denis
1949 births
2022 deaths
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
British critics of Islam
British horror writers
British religious writers
Former Bahá'ís
Literary critics from Northern Ireland
Literary critics of English
Male novelists from Northern Ireland
Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland
People associated with Durham University
Mohammed V University faculty
Religion academics
Secular humanists
Writers from Belfast