PHILADELPHIA — The Middle East Forum is pleased to announce that Denis MacEoin—an Irish specialist of Islam and Iran, and widely published novelist—will take over as editor of the Middle East Quarterly, its flagship publication, starting with the Fall 2009 issue.
The Times of London has called the MEQ, founded in 1994, an “invaluable source of information on the Middle East.” Bernard Lewis, the doyen of Middle Eastern specialists, terms it, “Lively and stimulating … interesting and important.”
Mr. MacEoin graduated with an M.A. in English language and literature from Trinity College, Dublin, followed by a second degree in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic History from Edinburgh University and a Ph.D. in Persian/Islamic Studies from King’s College, Cambridge. In 1986, he became honorary fellow in the Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies at Durham University.
Mr. MacEoin carried out manuscript-based research in Iran in 1976. In 1979-80, he taught at the Mohammed V University in Fez, Morocco. Following that, he took up a post as lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University.
From 2005 to 2008, Mr. MacEoin was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University where he now teaches a short course in creative writing. He is a member of the advisory council of the Centre for Social Cohesion, an offshoot of the Civitas think tank. He writes a blog, A Liberal Defence of Israel.
He has published extensively on Islamic topics. His books include The Sources for Babi Doctrine and History (Brill, 1992), Rituals in Babism and Baha’ism (I.B. Tauris, 1994), and The Messiah of Shiraz: Studies in Early and Middle Babism (Brill, 2008); he also co-edited Islam in the Modern World (Wadsworth, 1983). A collection of his journalism was published under the pen-name Daniel Easterman, New Jerusalems: Reflections on Islam, Religious Fundamentalism, and the Rushdie Affair (Grafton/HarperCollins, 1993).
He has contributed to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Islam in the Modern World, the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Penguin Handbook of Living Religions, journals, festschrifts, and books.
In recent years, Mr. MacEoin has worked extensively on radical Islam in the U.K. He wrote a full-scale report on Islamic hate literature in Britain, The Hijacking of British Islam (London, 2007), for the think tank Policy Exchange; a study on Muslim schools in the U.K. for Civitas, When Worlds Collide (soon to be published by Civitas), and a third on Shari‘a courts, also for Civitas.
Under the pen-names Daniel Easterman and Jonathan Aycliffe, he has 25 novels to his credit, including The Last Assassin (1984), set in post-revolution Iran, and The Sword (2007), based in modern Cairo. The Final Judgement (1996) is a thriller based around Holocaust denial. Others have been set in Tibet, Mongolia, Haiti, Mexico, Romania, and elsewhere. A recurring theme is the negative effect of irrational ideas and movements on democratic societies. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.
Daniel Pipes will continue as the Quarterly‘s publisher. Michael Rubin will join Patrick Clawson as senior editor. Judy Goodrobb remains the managing editor.
“We are delighted Denis MacEoin is joining the Quarterly as editor,” said Mr. Pipes. “His scholarship on the Middle East, his knowledge of the languages of the region, and his long experience as a published writer and a writing instructor make him an excellent choice for the position.”
“I am eager to take up the post of Middle East Quarterly editor,” said Mr. MacEoin. “I have always enjoyed its heady mix of topics, its nicely-poised balance between the needs of the academy and a general audience, plus its championing of viewpoints not often heard on campus and in the media.”
Immediate release
For more information, contact Amy Shargel at
215-546-5406, ex. 22
Shargel@MEForum.org
