Maurice Alex Pomerantz Wins Islamic Republic of Iran’s World Award for Book of the Year

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran has awarded Maurice Alex Pomerantz, Member (2015–16) in the School of Historical Studies, its World Award for Book of the Year in recognition of Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995) (Brill, 2017).

The award aims to select and introduce worthwhile international books, to honor their authors, editors, and translators for elevating the general knowledge and culture, and to develop public scholarship and readership with the Islamic and Iranian written heritage.

While at IAS, Pomerantz worked on a literary history of Arabic picaresque tales. His research examines how the imaginary itineraries of these tales’ rogue characters reflect the intellectual, social, and economic networks of Muslim merchants in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia from the eleventh to the nineteenth century C.E.

Read more at the World Book Award.