Hossein Modarressi is the Bayard Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Professor of Islamic Law at Princeton University where he has taught since 1983.
He attended the Islamic seminary at Qom (Iran) where he received a complete traditional Islamic education in Islamic philosophy, theology and law, ending with a certificate of ijtihād. He also taught there for many years before pursuing his secular education which ended in 1982 with a D. Phil. from Oxford University.
Modarressi is the author of many books and articles in English, Arabic, and Persian. His books in English include Kharāj in Islamic Law (London, 1983), An Introduction to Shi’i Law (London, 1984), Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi’ite Islam (Princeton, 1993), and Tradition and Survival, a Bibliographical Survey of Early Shi’ite Literature (Oxford, 2003).