Biography

​​​Rudi Matthee serves as the John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Delaware, where he teaches Middle Eastern history, with a research focus on early modern Iran and the Persian Gulf. His books include The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730 (Cambridge University Press, 1999); The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900 (Princeton University Press, 2005); Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan (I.B. Tauris, 2012); and, with Willem Floor and Patrick Clawson, The Monetary History of Iran. From the Safavids to the Qajars  (I.B. Tauris, 2013). He co-edited, with Beth Baron, Iran and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie (2000); co-edited, with Nikki Keddie, Iran and the Surrounding World, 1501-2001:Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (2002); and, with Jorge Flores, Portugal, the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia (Peeters, 2011).  His most recent edited volume is The Safavid World (Routledge, 2021). He has also published numerous articles on aspects of Safavid and Qajar Iran. He twice served as president of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies, 2003-05 and 2009-2011, and currently serves as the president of the Persian Heritage Foundation. He received the 2006 Albert Hourani Book Prize, awarded by the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the Saidi Sirjani Award, 2004-2005, awarded by the International Society for Iranian Studies, the British-Kuwaiti Friendship Book Prize, 2012, and, twice, the prize for best foreign-language book on Iran from the Iranian Ministry of Culture.

Publications

Angels Tapping at the Wine-shop's Door: A history of Alcohol in the Islamic World (London: Hurst Publishers; New York: Oxford University Press, 2023)​​

The Safavid World​ (Routledge, 2021)

Russians in Iran: Diplomacy and Power in the Qajar Era and Beyond (I.B. Tauris, 2018)

The Spanish Monarchy and Safavid Persia in the Early Modern Period. Politics, War and Religion (Albatros, Valencia, 2016)

The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars With Willem Floor and Patrick Clawson (I.B. Tauris, 2013)