Cliopatria Welcomes Manan Ahmed ...

Cliopatria welcomes Manan Ahmed to its circle. Born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, he came to the United States a decade ago for undergraduate studies at Miami University of Ohio. Ahmed is now a doctoral candidate in History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, with special expertise in the intellectual history of Islam in India. He is a lecturer in the undergraduate College and an administrator in the University's Social Sciences Computing Services. Fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindi, Persian, and English, with a reading knowledge of Arabic, Hindi, French, and German, Ahmed is finishing his dissertation on the Arab conquest of India in the eighth century.

That's the impressive part of it. The interesting part is the story of his fateful adolescent hunt for a lizard. He is a said to be an easy grader, but Ahmed will take points off if you toss lizards in his direction. He blogs at Chapati Mystery, where you can learn more here and here.