
Mir Tamim Ansary (born November 4, 1948, in
Kabul, Afghanistan) is an
Afghan-American
Afghan Americans ( prs, آمریکاییهای افغانتبار ''Amrikāyi-hāye Afghān tabar'', ps, د امريکا افغانان ''Da Amrīka Afghanan'') are Americans of Afghan descent or Americans who originated from Afghanistan. ...
author and public speaker. He is the author of ''Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes'', ''West of Kabul, East of New York'', and other books concerning Afghan and Muslim history. He was previously a
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
for the
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
website
Encarta.
Early life and education
Ansary was born in
Kabul and lived there until high school when he moved to the United States. He attended
Reed College in
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
,
Oregon.
Writer and lecturer
Ansary gained prominence in 2001 after he wrote a widely circulated
e-mail that denounced the
Taliban and warned that, although he believed that
United States would need to be deployed in Afghanistan to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, that, in Ansary's opinion, this could start a third world war. The e-mail was a response to a call to bomb Afghanistan "into the
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
".
His book ''West of Kabul, East of New York'' is a literary
memoir recounting his bicultural perspective on contemporary world conflicts. ''West of Kabul, East of New York'' was San Francisco's
One City One Book
One City One Book (also One Book One City, '' ity' Reads, On the Same Page and other variations) is a generic name for a community reading program that attempts to get everyone in a city to read and discuss the same book. The name of the program is ...
selection for 2008. Ansary also edited and published a group of essays by young Afghans entitled, ''Snapshots: This Afghan American Life'' with funding from a 2008 grant from the Christianson Fund.
In the middle of 2008 Ansary gave a series of lectures to the
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) offer noncredit courses with no assignments or grades to adults over age 50. Since 2001 philanthropist Bernard Osher has made grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation to launch OLLI programs at 120 univers ...
, associated with San Francisco State University, on the history and development of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. This series was rebroadcast on the local affiliate of National Public Radio
ALW
Ansary's novel, ''The Widow's Husband'', portrays the nineteenth-century
British invasion of Afghanistan from both an Afghan and a British perspective.
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes' was published in spring of 2009 by
PublicAffairs
PublicAffairs (or PublicAffairs Books) is an imprint of Perseus Books, an American book publishing company located in New York City and has been a part of the Hachette Book Group since 2016.
PublicAffairs was launched in 1997 by Peter Osnos. ...
. This book won the 2010 Northern California book award, general nonfiction category.
A memoir, ''Road Trips, Becoming an American in the vapor trail of The Sixties'', recounts stories from Mir Tamim's years as part of the American ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture.
His latest book
The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection was released in October 2019.
For over two decades, Mir Tamim moderated the
San Francisco Writers Workshop The San Francisco Writers Workshop is one of the oldest continuously running writing critique groups in the United States, meeting every Tuesday night, except for major holidays, since 1946. Successful published authors who first workshopped their b ...
in attempt to give back to younger writers what was given to him when young.
San Francisco Writers Workshop
/ref>
Tamim Ansary lives in San Francisco with his wife. They have two daughters.
Works
"Could deal with Taliban fighters end war?", Tamim Ansary, CNN, January 30, 2010
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*''The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection''. Public Affairs, 2019.
References
External links
Author's website
* ttp://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tamim_ansary.php Identity Theory interviews Tamim Ansary
Christian Science Monitor interview about Games Without Rules
Memoir Pool
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansary, Tamim
1948 births
Living people
Afghan emigrants to the United States
People from Kabul
Reed College alumni
American writers of Afghan descent