Columbia University
Bulliet, Richard
Professor Emeritus, Middle Eastern
Education
Ph.D. — Harvard University, 1967
MA — Harvard University, 1964
BA — Harvard University, 1962
Interests and Research
Richard Bulliet, professor, specializes in Middle Eastern history, the social and institutional history of Islamic countries, and the history of technology.
Courses
- Islamo-Christian Civilization
- America and the Muslim World
- History of Islamic Society
- History of North Africa and the Sahara Desert to 1500
- Domestic Animals and Human History
- Technology and History
- History of Iran down to the Safavid Period
- History of the Modern Middle East
- Religious Conversion
- Nobility and Civility
- Contemporary Civilization
- Literature Humanities
- Art Humanities
- Music Humanities
Courses available on iTunes
- The History of the Modern Middle East
- The History of Iran Down to the Safavid Period
Courses available on YouTube
- History of the World to 1500
- History of the World since 1500
Awards
- Phi Beta Kappa - 1962
- NDFL Fellowships (for Arabic and Turkish) - 1962-1965
- Honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellowship - 1962
- Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship - 1965-66
- Fulbright-Hays Fellowship - 1965-66
- Guggenheim Fellow - 1975-76
- Dexter Prize of the Society for the History of Technology for The Camel and the Wheel - 1977
- American-Indian Commission Fellowship - 1990
Affiliations
- Member, Board of Trustees, Columbia University Press
- Trustee, ILEX Foundation
Publications
Books: Non-fiction
Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in History
Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers
The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization
The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century
The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History
The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East
Under Siege: Islam and Democracy
Islam: The View from the Edge
Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History
The Camel and the Wheel
The Patricians of Nishapur: A Study in Medieval Islamic Social History
Books: Fiction
The Sufi Fiddle
The Gulf Scenario
The Tomb of the Twelfth Imam
Kicked to Death by a Camel
Scholarly Articles
“Iran between East and West,” Journal of International Affairs, 60:2 (2007), 1-14.
“Conversion-based Partronage and Onomastic Evidence,” in Patronate and Patronage in Early and Classical Islam, eds. Monique Bernards and John Nawas, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005, 246-62.
“Women and the Urban Religious Elite in the Pre-Mongol Period,” Guity Nashat and Lois Beck, eds., Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
“The Crisis of Authority in Islam,” Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2002.
“Economic Systems and Technologies” and “Communication and Transport” in M. E. Bakhit, et al. Eds., History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development. Volume IV, From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century, Paris and London: UNESCO and Routledge, 2000, 71-83, 84-95.
“Twenty Years of Islamic Politics,” the Middle East Journal, 53/2 (Spring 1999), pp. 189-200.
“Themes, Conjunctures, and Comparisons,” in Heidi Roupp, ed., Teaching World History: A Resource Book, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997, pp. 94-109.
“Day After Tomorrow: The Future of Islamic Movements,” Harvard International Review XIX/2 (Spring 1997), pp. 34-37, 66-67.
“Themes, Conjunctures, and Comparisons,” in Heidi Roupp, ed., Teaching World History: A Resource Book, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997, pp. 94-109.
"The Individual in Islamic Society," in Irene Bloom et. al, eds., Religious Diversity and Human Rights, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, pp. 175-191.
"Islamic World to 1500," in Mary Beth Norton and Pamela Gerardi, eds., The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature, 3d ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, vol. 1, pp. 498-526.
"Of Encyclopedias and the End of a World," Biblion. The Bulletin of The New York Public Library, 3/1 (Fall 1994), 49-58.
"Orientalism and Medieval Islamic Studies," in John Van Engen, ed., The Past and Future of Medieval Studies, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994.