Akbar Ahmed: Two Plays: Noor and the Trial of Dara Shikoh

"Listen in rapture to the voices of modern Islam. I am in awe of this tremendous, important work."--Daniel Futterman, actor and screenwriter, on Noor

"Not only a fascinating drama, but a most important, highly instructive study of the major forces within Islam . . . that grip our modern world and may help decide our global future."--Stanley Wolpert, on The Trial of Dara Shikoh

Noor is the tale of three brothers attempting to rescue their kidnapped sister. Each brother represents a different ideological position in the contemporary Islamic world. While exploring the crisis of modern Islam, Noor is a heartfelt treatise for religious tolerance.

The Trial of Dara Shikoh tells the story of the eldest son of seventeenth-century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Heir apparent, Dara Shikoh is a learned scholar with a strong belief in the unity of different faiths: Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and Judaism. Akbar Ahmed's play highlights the complex issue of religious interpretation within a human context.

With an introduction by Ari Roth, artistic director of Theater J in Washington, DC.

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, Washington, DC, and in 2008 he was appointed Distinguished Chair for Middle East/Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He is Pakistan's former ambassador to Great Britain and was awarded the Heschel-King Award for Interfaith Activism on King Day 2009. He is the author of Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, published in June 2007.