Jawid Mojaddedi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

. At the age of five, he along with his mother and brother moved to Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. He lived in several British cities and towns, including Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Westcliff-on-Sea

Westcliff-on-Sea

Westcliff-on-Sea is a suburb of Southend-on-Sea, a seaside resort in the East of England and unitary authority in Essex. It is situated on the northern bank of the Thames Estuary and about 34 miles east of London.-Geography:...

, and Exeter.

During the nineties, Jawid Mojaddedi attended University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

, where he earned his BA and PhD in Middle Eastern Studies

Middle Eastern studies

Middle Eastern studies is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations extending from North Africa in the west to the Chinese...

. After graduating from the University of Manchester, he worked as a full-time faculty member of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, where he taught Arabic and Islamic Studies

Islamic studies

In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

.

In 1998, Jawid moved from Great Britain to the United States. He worked at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 for two years as an editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica

Encyclopædia Iranica

Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times...

. He has been teaching at Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 since 2003. He is a former director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Rutgers University.

Jawid Mojaddedi is known world-wide as a Rumi expert. He has published several books, including translations of Rumi's longest poem, known as the Masnavi, into simple English. The Masnavi: Book One was published in 2004 and was awarded the Lois Roth Prize for excellence in translation of Persian literature

Persian literature

Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

by the American Institute of Iranian Studies. The Masnavi: Book Two was published in 2007.