In 1970 he first came to teach at University of Chicago, and quickly distinguished himself as a leading scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
He has won recognition for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching at Chicago and is a recipient of the Farabi International Award for contributions in Iranian and Islamic studies.
"Timur's Genealogy," Intellectual Studies on Islam, Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson, eds.
Michel M. Mazzaoui and Vera B. Moreen (University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, 1990), pp. 85–125.
"Turco-Iranica I: An Ottoman Intelligence Report on Late Fifteenth/Ninth Century Iranian Foreign Relations," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 38 (1979), pp.