Reuben Levy

Reuben Levy was Professor of Persian at the University of Cambridge. He wrote on Persian literature and Islamic history.

Life

Levy was educated at the Friars School, Bangor, the University College of North Wales, Bangor and Jesus College, Oxford, studying Persian, Turkish and the Semitic languages. His First Persian teacher was Isa Sedigh.
During the First World War, he was a captain in General Staff Intelligence in Mesopotamia, and worked in the Iraq Political Service. He lectured in Persian at Oxford from 1920 to 1923 before living in the United States from 1923 to 1926. He moved to the University of Cambridge in 1926 as Lecturer in Persian, and became Professor of Persian in 1950, the chair being created for him. He was also a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. During the Second World War, he was a Squadron Leader in RAF Intelligence.

Works

His first book, Persian Literature, was written when he was still a lecturer at Oxford. A Baghdad Chronicle was an account of the Muslim Middle Ages and Abbasid Caliphate. It led to his major work, The Sociology of Islam, which was regarded as a new approach to Muslim history. He also produced translations and critical editions of texts, including the 11th century Persian text Qabus nama, The Tales of Marzuban and The Shah-nama.