Formerly a commentator for The Times and the BBC on international affairs, Hazhir Teimourian now writes books of a philosophical nature, with an MA in philosophy from the Uiversity of Buckingham obtained under his late friend Professor Sir Roger Scruton. He is especially thrilled to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Teimourian was born in 1940 into the Yarsan religion of Kurdish western Iran and was educated there in classical Persian and Arabic. At the age of nineteen, he came to England to study science and read for a degree in chemistry, but did not complete the course. Instead, he fell under the infuence of analytical Anglophone philosophers and drifted into the Persian Section of the BBC External Services, now the World Service. In 1980, he was invited by The Times to join it as a writer specialising in the Middle East, eventually broadening out to become a columnist and commentator in various fields. During the crisis of the eviction of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, he re-joined the BBC on a temporary basis as a commentator attached to televison news. During later wars and crises, he contributed regularly to most of the main broadcasters of the Anglophone world, from ABC in Australia to CBC and CBS in North America. His Biography of Omar Khayyām (the eleventh century Persian free-thinker, mathematician and poet) was praised by the press in 2007 and has been translated into several languages. His book, The Consolations of Autumn: Sages in Hard Times, which followed a BBC Radio 4 programme entitled Something Undertood, was published in 2015. A new book, The Ultimate Question: Towards a new God of the Philosophers in a Godless Universe, argues that, despite most of us having lost God to science, we can still have a a sacred centre to our lives, and that religion is deeper than a belief in a consious creator of the world. An autobiography is also forthcoming.
                        Praise for his forthcoming autobiography To Know that Love Existed :
Born in 1940 in the Kurdish region of Iran, Teimourian has had a full and varied life that has brought him into contact with many notable individuals. He was an influential broadcaster and journalist and in this volume shares his experiences, as well as his inner thoughts, with us. Sir Anthony Kenny Philosopher, former President of the British Academy Brilliant. Personal, political, philosophical, erudite. In just over 100,000 words, Teimourian has captured enough of his immensely eventful life to enrapture the reader in his story. … and he raises the most fundamental of questions about human nature. Sonia Land Former CEO of Harper Collins Genuinely fascinating. This is a full, rich, sharply-observed panorama, the more interesting in the context of the Middle East and the meeting of cultures which the book explores. … Hugely absorbing … I enjoyed the whole experience. Jonathan Keates Historian and biographer, Ordine Della Stella d’Italia, former chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund Everything about Hazhir Teimourian is fascinating: His interesting and improbable family, his exotic and exciting background, the peripeteia of his profession as a journalist and man of letters, the stratling  range of his friends and acquaintances, the candour with which he recounts his thoughts and passions, the unsurpassed depth of his sensibilities, the transgressive cultural shifts that constitute his life story, and the irresistibly engaging style in which he writes it. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Historian, Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso the Wise I have known Hazhir Teimourian for a long time, ever since we were neighbours in Limehouse and would go jogging on Sundays. He was a wise and illuminating commentator on the politics of the Middle East. But I find now that there was much about his life that I did now know: his upbringing as a Kurd in a muntainous area of western Iran; his arrival in London to study scinece; his activities as a critic of the Shah’s autocracy that ended in the Islamist takeover of 1979; his immense importance as a journalist and commentator; his years of needing the protection of the police. As he recounts his childhood, career, friendships, loves and marraiges, his admiration for England and his philosophical beliefs, one hears his voice throughout: independent-minded, amusing, sagacious. It is a great treat. I have had the utmost pleasure reading it. Sir Charles Samumarez Smith Art historian and former Director of the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts