Zakir Hussein Gul

Zakir Hussein Gul is a PhD student in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. He previously studied at the University of Oxford (BA: Arabic and Islamic Studies), the University of Tehran (MA: Persian Literature), and Ankara University (TÖMER). His research examines the intersections of post-classical Islamic intellectual history and adab, with particular interest in questions of mimesis and imitation in early modern Indo-Persian and Ottoman literature

Zakir has contributed to debates on mimesis in post-Timurid Persianate contexts through peer-reviewed publications in Diyâr: Journal of Ottoman, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies and Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies. He has also prepared a critical edition of the Nigāristān of Ottoman şeyḫülislām Kemālpaşazāde (d. 1534), composed in emulation of Saʿdī’s Gulistān and Jāmī’s Bahāristān, forthcoming with the Iranian Written Heritage Research Institute (Mīrās̱-i Maktūb). Concomitant with his research at NELC, Zakir studies comparative metaphysics and Islamic philosophy with Omar Qureshi and Hasan Spiker, is stimulated by Arabic, Persian and Turkic palaeography and codicology, and enjoys good bubble tea.