He holds a PhD in Near-Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include the intersection of Sufi virtue ethics and literature, as well as the relationship between Sufism and Shīʿī mysticism. He is the author of Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi (Columbia, SC, 2011), as well as articles in the Journal of Arabic Literature, The Muslim World, and Iranian Studies. His forthcoming book, The Polished Mirror, concerns classical Islamic virtue ethics in its various literary forms, in Sufism, and in Islamic philosophy. Professor Cyrus Ali Zargar has been a Fellow of the Shīʿah Institute since September 2013.