William C. Chittick – Chittick, Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, Ancient Psychology
Translator and Interpreter of Classical Islamic Philosophical and Mystical Texts
William C. Chittick was born in Milford, Connecticut in 1943. As an undergraduate student majoring in history at the College of Wooster (Ohio), Chittick spent the 1964–1965 academic year abroad, studying Islamic history at the American University of Beirut. It was here that he first came into contact with Sufism, as he decided to write his junior year independent study on the topic. Having become familiar with the standard accounts of Sufism, Chittick attended a public lecture on the topic by Seyyed Hossein
William Chittick is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University. In the early 1980s, Chittick served as an associate editor for Encyclopaedia Iranica . Chittick is author and translator of thirty books and more than one hundred seventy five articles on Islamic thought, Sufism, Shi’ism, and Persian literature. His more recent books include: The Repose of the Spirits (SUNY Press, 2019), Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God (
William C. Chittick – Chittick, Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, Ancient Psychology