Beginning with his Ph.D. dissertation under the direction of Professor Muhsin Mahdi (d. 2007) in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Harvard (NELC), he focused his research and publications on elucidating the rationalist principle in Iranian Illuminationist philosophy and its founder, Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhravardi (1154-1191) otherwise known as Sheikh al-Ishraq (Master of Illumination).

In December 2010, Ziai was elected President of Société Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences et de la Philosophie Arabes et Islamiques (SIHSPAI), an international academic society for the study of Persian and Arabic Islamic philosophical and scientific heritages.

Outside his academic career he also had an interest in art, producing oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, calligraphy and watercolors.

Born in Mashhad, the capital of the Khorasan province of Iran, on the 6th of July 1944, he belonged to a family known for producing politicians and academicians, one of his earliest well-known ancestors being Mirza Abu'l-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam, a man of letters who briefly served as Prime Minister of Iran in the 19th century.

On 24 August 2011, at the age of 67, Hossein Ziai died in Los Angeles, United States.