Tamim Ansary
{{Short description|Afghan-American author}}
File:Tamim Ansary at SF Public Library 10-15-08.JPG
Mir Tamim Ansary (born November 4, 1948, in Kabul, Afghanistan) is an Afghan-American 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 for the encyclopedia website Encarta.
Early life and education
Ansary was born in Kabul and lived there until high school when he moved to the United States.{{cite news| url=http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/05/tamim_ansary_from_afghanistan.html | work=The Oregonian | title=Tamim Ansary: from Afghanistan to Portland | date=May 27, 2009}} In Afghanistan he attended Lashkargah School,{{cite book|last=Ansary|first=Tamim|title=West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story|publisher=Picador|year=2002|page=84|quote=[...]like my classmates at the Lashkargah School,[...]}} and Lycée Esteqlal.{{cite book|last=Ansary|first=Tamim|title=West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story|publisher=Picador|year=2002|page=90|quote=Istlaqal was the second-oldest school[...]}} - The name of the Esteqlal school is spelled "Istlaqal" in the book. He then attended the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in the United States.{{cite book|last=Ansary|first=Tamim|title=West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story|publisher=Picador|year=2002|page=93|quote=The day the letter of acceptance arrived from CRMS,[...]}}
He attended Reed College in Portland, 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 the United States would need to be deployed in Afghanistan to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, in Ansary's opinion, that could start a third world war. The e-mail was a response to a call to bomb Afghanistan "into the Stone Age".{{Cite web |title=CNN.com - Text of Tamim Ansary's e-mail - September 26, 2001 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/09/26/ansary.email/index.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=CNN}}
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 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 mid-2008 Ansary gave a series of lectures to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, associated with San Francisco State University, on the history and development of Islam.[http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/olli/newsletter/pdfs/spring04-03.01.pdf Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Newsletter March 1, 2004] This series was rebroadcast on the local affiliate of National Public Radio [KALW].[http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/olli/olli-channel.cfm Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Website]
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 2009 by PublicAffairs and won the 2010 Northern California book award, general nonfiction category.{{cn|date=December 2023}} A review in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "Ansary does a good job of depicting the fundamental societal and cultural changes that have shaped the history of Islamic civilization."[https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Destiny-Disrupted-by-Tamim-Ansary-3162625.php "'Destiny Disrupted,' by Tamim Ansary", San Francisco Gate, May 10, 2009]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100523090449/http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-05-10/books/17200088_1_world-through-islamic-eyes-sayyid-qutb-world-history Archive] The book was also reviewed in the journal Literature and Theology.{{Cite journal |last=Allison |first=Anthony |date=2010 |title=Review of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43664426 |journal=Literature and Theology |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=449–451 |issn=0269-1205}}
A memoir, Road Trips, Becoming an American in the vapor trail of The Sixties, recounts stories from Ansary's years as part of the American ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trips-Becoming-American-vapor-Sixties-ebook/dp/B01M8I13DG|title = Amazon.co.uk|website = Amazon UK}}
His latest book, [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/tamim-ansary/the-invention-of-yesterday/9781610397971/ The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection], was released in October 2019.
For over two decades, Ansary moderated the San Francisco Writers Workshop in attempt to give back to younger writers what was given to him when young.http://www.pw.org/content/tamim_ansary_0 {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}[http://www.sanfranciscowritersworkshop.com/ San Francisco Writers Workshop]
Tamim Ansary lives in San Francisco with his wife. They have two daughters.
Works
- [http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/30/ansary.afghanistan.taliban/index.html "Could deal with Taliban fighters end war?", Tamim Ansary, CNN, January 30, 2010]
- {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-R8b1ju-2IMC&q=Tamim+Ansary| title=West of Kabul, East of New York| publisher=Macmillan| year= 2003| isbn= 978-0-312-42151-9 }}
- {{cite book| title=Snapshots: This Afghan American Life| publisher=Kajakai Press| year= 2008| isbn=978-0-615-19737-1 }}
- {{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/widowshusband00ansa| url-access=registration| quote=the widow's husband.| title=The Widow's Husband| publisher=Numina Press| year= 2009| isbn= 978-0-9753615-0-4}}
- {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4rgTr0W32-kC&q=Tamim+Ansary| title=Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes | publisher=Basic Civitas Books| year= 2009| isbn= 978-1-58648-606-8 }}
- {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_GxMdkQuCjIC&q=tamim+ansary+games+without+rules| title=Games Without Rules: the Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan | publisher=Public Affairs| year= 2012| isbn= 978-1610390941 }}
- {{cite book|title=Road Trips: Becoming an American in the vapor trail of The Sixties|publisher=Kajakai Press|year= 2016|isbn=978-0578185262}}
- The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection. Public Affairs, 2019.
References
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External links
- [http://www.mirtamimansary.com/ Author's website]
- [http://tcotrel.tripod.com/afghanletter.html Ansary's email after 9/11]
- [http://litminds.org/blog/2008/09/caught_between_two_worlds.html LitMinds interviews Tamim Ansary]
- [http://en.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-478/_nr-1043/i.html Tamim Ansary: "Destiny Disrupted": World History from an Islamic Perspective]
- [http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tamim_ansary.php Identity Theory interviews Tamim Ansary]
- [http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0125/Games-Without-Rules-dominate-Afghanistan-s-tangled-history/ Christian Science Monitor interview about Games Without Rules]
- [https://memoirpool.com/ Memoir Pool]
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