Recommended Citation

In Islam from the Edge (1994), Richard Bulliet argues that the 7th century Arab conquest of the Persian Empire led to the diffusion of Persian scholarship across the Middle East and Central Asia. He contends that after the Islamization of modern-day Iran, a Persian diaspora bore the responsibility of proselytizing and spreading Arabic, the language of Islam. Paradoxically, through the medium of Arabic, Persian imperial decline enabled the spread of Persian civilization. Though I hesitate to make predictions about the decline of American power, the recession has engendered a contentious debate on the inevitability and consequences of imperial decline. While many of the arguments contending that America is in decline are both premature, and, more importantly, outside the scope of this article, there is one dimension of American power that is uncontested. America’s leading universities and its system of higher education have a global reputation that is unrivaled. And, much like Persia in the 7th century, due to the expansive growth in American-affiliated universities overseas scholars trained in American institutions are in demand. This article describes m