Tamim Ansary is a Professor of History and Middle East Studies at the University of California, Davis. A native of Bangladesh, he received his PhD from Harvard University in 2004. His research focuses on the evolution of Islam and political-economic history in late 19th- and early 20th-century North Africa and the Arab world. He is the author of The Arab States and the Making of the Arab Uprising (2012) and co-editor (with Jonathan G
Tobin) of Is There No Alternative: Islamic Radicalism in a Time of Peace (2006).
In short, this or that behavior wasn't good because scripture said so. Scripture mandated this or that behavior because it was good, and if it was already good before scripture said so, then it was good for some reason inherent to itself, some reason that reason could discover.Tamim Ansary
We need solitude, because when we're alone, we're free from obligations, we don't need to put on a show, and we can hear our own thoughts.Tamim Ansary
