Richard W. Bulliet (born 1940) is a professor emeritus of
Middle Eastern
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
history at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
who specializes in the history of
Islamic society and institutions, the
history of technology
The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques by humans. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 19 ...
, and the history of the role of animals in human society.
Early life and education
Bulliet grew up in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. He attended
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
from which he graduated with a BA as a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
in 1962. He later earned both an MA in 1964 and a PhD in 1967 from Harvard as well.
Work
Several of his books focus on
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
but also deal with the larger Muslim world.
His book ''The Camel and the Wheel'' (1975) brings together his interest in the histories of technology, animal domestication, and the Middle East, dealing for example with the significant military advantage early Muslim armies gained from a slight improvement in the design of cloth camel saddles.
He would return to the history of animal domestication with his ''Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human-Animal Relationships'' (2005). In it, he presents the four stages of human-animal relationship history: separation (when humans began to consider themselves as fundamentally separate from animals), pre-domestication (rich in symbolic expression of animals), domestication (exploiting and taming animals for human use), and post-domestication (our current industrialized consumption and separation from domestic animals).
He has also written several novels which draw on his knowledge of international politics and the Middle East, and is a promoter of the validity of comics as an art form.
Bulliet's commentaries and opinion pieces on the Middle East have appeared in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
International Edition'', and ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...
''.
It was through the connections of Bulliet to the Iranian U.N. Ambassador that Columbia President
Lee C. Bollinger invited Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...
to speak at Columbia University on September 24, 2007.
Personal life
He is the grandson of
Clarence Joseph ("C.J.") Bulliet, an art critic and journalist.
Books
Non-fiction
* ''The Patricians of Nishapur: a Study in Medieval Islamic History'' (1972)
* ''The Camel and the Wheel'' (1975)
* ''Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History'' (1979)
* ''Islam: the View from the Edge'' (1994)
* ''Under Siege: Islam and Democracy'' (1994)
* ''The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East'' (co-editor, 1996)
* ''The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History'' (co-author, 1997)
* ''The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century'' (editor, 1998)
* ''The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization'' (2004)
* ''Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human-Animal Relationships'' (2005)
Fiction
* ''Kicked to Death by a Camel'' (1973), nominated for an
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...
for "Best First Mystery"
* ''Tomb of the Twelfth Imam'' (1979)
* ''The Gulf Scenario'' (1984)
* ''The Sufi Fiddle'' (1991)
* ''The One-Donkey Solution'' (2011)
References
External links
Bulliet's address to the Dialogue among Civilizations United Nations, New York City, 5 September 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulliet, Richard
1940 births
Living people
Columbia University faculty
Harvard University alumni
American historians of religion
American medievalists
Historians of the Middle East
American Islamic studies scholars