Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, born in Tehran in 1933, is an Iranian-American philosopher, theologian and Islamic scholar known for his work on comparative religion, Sufism and the philosophy of science. He belongs to the Islamic philosophical tradition and to the perennialist school, especially its Traditionalist current, and he is one of the best-known voices of contemporary Islamic thought in the West. He is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University.

He grew up in a family of educated professionals: his father was a physician to the royal family, a philosopher and one of the founders of modern education in Iran. Nasr was schooled in Tehran and, while still a teenager, was sent to the United States, where he earned a degree in physics at MIT. A conversation with Bertrand Russell convinced him that physics would not answer his deepest questions, and he turned toward metaphysics and writers such as René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Titus Burckhardt. He went on to earn master's degrees in geology and geophysics and a doctorate in the history of science at Harvard. His first book, Science and Civilization in Islam, and his dissertation, published in 1964 as An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, explore the relationship between science and religion.

Back in Iran he taught at Tehran University and headed the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, founded at the request of Empress Farah Pahlavi. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 forced him into exile in the United States, where he has spent the rest of his academic career.

At the core of his thought is the claim that modern knowledge has been desacralized, cut off from its divine source. In response he proposes a holistic view of the cosmos in which the unity of nature and humanity is a metaphysical premise. His work has shaped the study of Islam, Islamic environmentalism and dialogue between religious traditions.