Hossein Ziai is the professor of Islamic and Iranian Studies, Inaugural holder of the Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies and the director of Iranian Studies at UCLA, where he has taught since 1988. He received his B.S. in 1967 in Intensive Mathematics & Physics from Yale University, and his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard University in 1976. Prior to his position at UCLA, Ziai has taught at Tehran University, Sharif University, Harvard University, Brown University, and Oberlin College. Ziai has published several volumes and numerous articles on a range of topics that include: Islamic philosophy; the Iranian Illuminationist school of philosophy founded by the creative and charismatic Persian thinker, Sohravardī; and the impact of philosophy on Persian intellectual poetry where the concept “Persian Poetic Wisdom” is defined in relation to the epistemology of knowledge by presence. His books include: (1) Philosophy of Mathematics; (2) Anvāriyyeh (The Realm of Lights); (3) Knowledge and Illumination; (4) Shahrazūrī’s Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, on Illuminationist Philosophy; (5) The Book of Radiance; (6) The Philosophy of Illumination; (7) The Ball and Polo Stick; (8) Ibn Kammūna’s Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt, on Natural Philosophy and Psychology.