Bijan Omrani

Bijan Omrani is a British scholar, historian, teacher and author, born in York, England, United Kingdom, in 1979.

Family and personal life

Omrani is related to one of the British Army officers responsible for demarcating the northern boundary of Afghanistan in 1885 and surveying Afghan tribal territories in the North West Frontier Province, the artist and surveyor Lt Richard Eyles Galindo.^[1]

His paternal family is from north-western Iran, and his maternal one from England, though with the British Empire in India in the 18th–19th century.

He is married to Samantha Knights, a barrister at Matrix Chambers.

Education

Bijan Omrani studied at the Wellington College, Berkshire and Lincoln College, Oxford, Oxford, and later at King's College London.

Work

Omrani taught Classics at Eton College and Westminster School. He is also a regular contributor of new Latin verse to the Election Dinner ceremonies at Westminster School.

Omrani is currently working as an editor for the Asian Affairs journal, since 2014.

Writing

Bijan Omrani is the author of several books, as well as a frequent contributor for specialized articles pertaining the Afghanistan-Pakistan border problems. He is also about to begin his first steps as a poet.

Bijan Omani is also regarded as an authority on the Afghanistan-Pakistan boundary problem; he has previously questioned the legal basis of the Durand Agreement but now he considers it to be valid but unsatisfactory, and that there is an urgent need for a wider regional solution to the problem perhaps based on a recognition of the line but combined with shared sovereignty in the neighbouring tribal areas.

Books

• Afghanistan, A Companion and Guide, (Odyssey, 2005, republished 2007, 2nd edition 2010)^[2]

• Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road (Odyssey, 2010)^[3]

• Iran: Persia Ancient and Modern (co-author), (Odyssey, 2010)^[4]

Forthcoming

• Caesar's Footprints (Head of Zeus, 2017)

Contributor of chapters

• Beyond the ‘Wild Tribes’: Understanding Afghanistan and its diaspora (2010)^[5]

• Afghanistan Revealed: Beyond the Headlines,^[6] released by the Afghan Appeal Fund, 2012^[7]

Academic articles and speeches

Afghanistan

• "Will we make it to Jalalabad?" 19th Century Book Travels in Afghanistan (2006)^[8]

• Afghanistan and the Search for Unity (2007)^[9]

• Charles Masson of Afghanistan: Deserter, Scholar, Spy (2007)^[10]

• The Durand Line: History and Problems of the Afghan-Pakistan Border (2009)^[11]

• Rethinking the Durand Line: The Legality of the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier (Oct 2009)^[12]

• Making Money in Afghanistan: The First Western Entrepreneurs 1880-1919^[13]

Classics

• Joint Winner of BBC Radio 3 Sonnet Competition, 2001^[14]

• Virgil: Eclogues 4.28 (with Prof. David Kovacs)^[15]

• Author of Horatian Latin Ode to the 2012 London Olympics, endorsed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and included in an anthology of Latin poetry^[16]

• Address to the Horatian Society (2014), published in the proceedings of the Society^[17]

Other

• Omrani lectures at the British Museum, Royal Society for Asian Affairs, SOAS, King's College London, and the Pakistan Society. He is a reviewer for various magazines and periodicals.

Memberships

• Fellow of Royal Geographical Society, Royal Society of Arts,^[18] and Royal Asiatic Society. Liveryman of Worshipful Company of Educators, City of London. Council Member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

Interviews and press

Omrani was interviewed by France 24 in 2011 about the Afghan-Pakistani border problems.^[19]

He was also featured in The New York Times in 2011, after an incident on the Pakistani border.^[18]

References