Bijan Omrani

Bijan Omrani is a British Classical scholar, historian, journalist, teacher and author.

Omrani was born in York, England, in 1979. He studied at the Wellington College, Berkshire before reading Classics and English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford. He later studied at King's College London.

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.

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.

Omrani taught Classics at Eton College and Westminster School where he contributed new Latin verse to school ceremonies. He is currently working as an editor for the Asian Affairs journal, since 2014. He also lectures at the British Museum, Royal Society for Asian Affairs, SOAS, King's College London, and the Pakistan Society.

He is the author of several books, as well as a frequent contributor for specialised articles pertaining the Afghanistan-Pakistan border problems. 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.

Omrani was interviewed by France 24 in 2011 about the Afghan-Pakistani border problems., and was also featured in The New York Times in 2011, after an incident on the Pakistani border.

Books

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

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

• Iran: Persia Ancient and Modern (co-author), (Odyssey, 2010)

Forthcoming

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

Contributor of chapters

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

• Afghanistan Revealed: Beyond the Headlines, released by the Afghan Appeal Fund, 2012

• Staff (6 December 2011). "Bijan Omrani, historian". France 24. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Staff. "Afghanistan: A Companion & Guide". Odyssey Books & Guides. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 
• Staff. "Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road". Andrew Lownie Literary Agency. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 
• Staff. "Iran: Persia: Ancient & Modern". Odyssey Books & Guides. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 
• Staff. "Beyond the 'Wild Tribes': Understanding Modern Afghanistan and its Diaspora". C. Hurst & Co. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 
• Staff (15 March 2014). "Voices on Afghanistan: Building schools for a better future". The National (Abu Dhabi): World. Mubadala Development Company. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 
• Staff (18 December 2013). "New e-book 'essential reading' on Afghanistan". Afghan Appeal Fund. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-14. 

Afghanistan

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

• Afghanistan and the Search for Unity (2007)

• Charles Masson of Afghanistan: Deserter, Scholar, Spy (2007)

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

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

• Making Money in Afghanistan: The First Western Entrepreneurs 1880-1919

Classics

• Joint Winner of BBC Radio 3 Sonnet Competition, 2001

• Virgil: Eclogues 4.28 (with Prof. David Kovacs)

• 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

• Address to the Horatian Society (2014), published in the proceedings of the Society

• Omrani, Bijan (2006). ""Will we make it to Jalalabad?"". Asian Affairs. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 37 (2): 161–174. doi:10.1080/03068370600661458. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (2007). "Afghanistan and the Search for Unity". Asian Affairs. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 38 (2): 145–157. doi:10.1080/03068370701349086. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (2008). "Charles Masson of Afghanistan: Deserter, Scholar, Spy". Asian Affairs. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 39 (2): 199–216. doi:10.1080/03068370802019075. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (2009). "The Durand Line: History and Problems of the Afghan-Pakistan Border". Asian Affairs. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 40 (2): 177–194. doi:10.1080/03068370902871508. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan; Ledwidge, Frank (2009). "Rethinking the Durand Line: The Legality of the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier". The RUSI Journal. Royal United Services Institute. 154 (5): 48–56. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (2012). "Making Money in Afghanistan: The First Western Entrepreneurs 1880-1919". Asian Affairs. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 43 (3): 374–392. doi:10.1080/03068374.2012.720059. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (2001). "Sonnet on Holy Baptism". Bijan Omrani. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan; Kovacs, Professor David (2012). "Virgil: Eclogues 4.28". Classical Quarterly. 62 (2): 866–868. doi:10.1017/S0009838812000390. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (4 November 2012). "Latin Ode to the London Olympics". The Classical Anthology. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 
• Omrani, Bijan (8 October 2014). "Horace and the Persians – Horatian Society Address 2014". Bijan Omrani. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-13. 

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

• Mackey, Robert (20 November 2011). "Pakistani Soldiers Died Near Long-Disputed Border". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-04-13.