Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi

Current Appointments and Editorial Work

Reza Shah-Kazemi was born in London on June 1, 1960, to a Pakistani father and an Iranian mother. He obtained a First Class Honours degree in International Relations from Sussex University (1979–1984), followed by an MA in Politics with Distinction from Exeter University (1984–1985), and later earned a PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent (1989–1994).

In 1994, he co-launched the Islamic World Report, which has since evolved into a publishing company. Between 1997 and 1999, he served as a consultant to the Institute for Policy Research (IKD) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dr. Shah-Kazemi currently serves as a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, where he is the managing editor of Encyclopaedia Islamica, the English translation and edition of the Persian Great Islamic Encyclopedia (Da’irat al-Ma’arif-i Buzurg-i Islami).

He was among the 138 signatories of the open letter “A Common Word Between Us and You”, addressed to leaders of Christian Churches worldwide on October 13, 2007. In 2009, he was listed among The 500 Most Influential Muslims by Georgetown University and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan. Dr. Shah-Kazemi has also contributed to the BBC Radio 2 program “Pause for Thought.”