Akbar Ahmed: Two Plays: Noor and the Trial of Dara Shikoh - Paperback

by Akbar Ahmed (Author)

"Listen in rapture to the voices of modern Islam. I am in awe of this tremendous, important work."--Daniel Futterman, actor and screenwriter, on Noor

"Not only a fascinating drama, but a most important, highly instructive study of the major forces within Islam . . . that grip our modern world and may help decide our global future."--Stanley Wolpert, on The Trial of Dara Shikoh

Noor is the tale of three brothers attempting to rescue their kidnapped sister. Each brother represents a different ideological position in the contemporary Islamic world. While exploring the crisis of modern Islam, Noor is a heartfelt treatise for religious tolerance.

The Trial of Dara Shikoh tells the story of the eldest son of seventeenth-century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Heir apparent, Dara Shikoh is a learned scholar with a strong belief in the unity of different faiths: Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and Judaism. Akbar Ahmed's play highlights the complex issue of religious interpretation within a human context.

With an introduction by Ari Roth, artistic director of Theater J in Washington, DC.

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, Washington, DC, and in 2008 he was appointed Distinguished Chair for Middle East/Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He is Pakistan's former ambassador to Great Britain and was awarded the Heschel-King Award for Interfaith Activism on King Day 2009. He is the author of Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, published in June 2007.

Author Biography

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, Washington D.C. In 2008 he was appointed Distinguished Chair for Middle East/Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He is a former Ambassador of Pakistan to Great Britain and has written numerous books as well as presenting and narrating a television series on the BBC.