Professor of Iranian and Central Asian History
and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
and the College
Professor John Woods received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas (BA), where he was among the first recipients of Title VI funding for the study of Arabic. In 1960, he was also among the first to receive a Fulbright fellowship, traveling to Cairo to learn Arabic. After a period of study at the University of Tehran (ABD), he completed his graduate studies in Iranian history at Princeton University (MA, PhD) in 1974 under the supervision of Martin B. Dickson. In 1970, he began teaching at the University of Chicago and quickly distinguished himself as a leading scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
Professor Woods’ research and teaching focus on the history of Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia from the 13th to 18th century with particular emphasis upon the encounter of sedentary and nomadic people in those regions. He is, at present, working on several projects dealing with the age of Chinggis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane). Professor Woods has been teaching the popular Islamic History and Society 1000-1700 course, part of the Islamic Civilization core sequence, since he came to Chicago. He teaches advanced courses in the study of Persian, Arabic and Turkish manuscripts. He also teaches seminars on Sources and Methods, the Mongols, the Timurids and the Safavids. In recognition of his careful attention to pedagogy and mentorship, Professor Woods is one of the very few recipients of both the University’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2007) and the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2014). Over the past 44 years many of his students and advisees have gone on to become leading scholars in Islamic Studies.
He was the director for 13 years of the University of Chicago's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, a US Department of Education National Resource Center. In this capacity, Professor Woods developed and implemented a nationally recognized program of public education that linked the University of Chicago’s resources in Middle Eastern Studies with collegiate and pre-collegiate educators, business groups, and the media in more than thirty states.
Professor Woods is currently convener of the Committee on Central Eurasian Studies and was the American academic director of the Chinggis Khan Expedition, a collaborative American-Mongolian geo-historical project in Mongolia from 1995 to 2004.
He has lived in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia for extended periods and has conducted tours in Turkey, Israel-Palestine, Iran, Central Asia, and Mongolia.
Professor Woods has published several monographs and numerous articles. His ground-breaking dissertation was published as The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire (1976 rev 1999) for which he was awarded the Farabi International Award by UNESCO and the Iranian Government.
Publications
The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire. Revised and expanded edition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999.
Fadlullah Khunji-Isfahani's Tarikh-i Alam-ara-yi Amini, Persian text edited by John E. Woods with an abridged English translation by Vladimir Minorsky, revised and augmented by John E. Woods. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1992 [released 1993].
“Timur’s Genealogy,” Intellectual Studies on Islam, Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson, eds. Michel M. Mazzaoui and Vera B. Moreen (University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, 1990), pp. 85–125.
The Timurid Dynasty, Papers on Inner Asia No. 14, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1990.
“The Rise of Timurid Historiography,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 48 (1987), pp. 81–108.
“Turco-Iranica II: Notes on a Timurid Decree of 1396/798,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43 (1984), pp. 331–37.
“Turco-Iranica I: An Ottoman Intelligence Report on Late Fifteenth/Ninth Century Iranian Foreign Relations,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 38 (1979), pp. 1–8.
