Marouf Cabi

Marouf Cabi is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. He obtained his PhD in History from the University of St Andrews in 2019. His research focuses on the social and cultural histories of modern Iran and Kurdistan, particularly since the Second World War, and modern historiography.

He is the author of two books, The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran (2022) and Iranian Kurdistan under the Islamic Republic (2025), and several book chapters on the Kurdish women’s movement during the 1979 Revolution, cross-border trade, and the question of Kurdistan and political sovereignty. His work has appeared in Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Critique, and the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. He taught Middle Eastern history at the University of St Andrews for several years before joining the Middle East Centre as a Visiting Fellow in 2022.

He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and will start a joint research project as a visiting Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) in September 2026. He is currently working on a British Academy–funded project on the emergence of minoritised historical writing in the twentieth century, with a particular focus on modern Kurdish historiography.

Expertise

International history; modern Iran; Kurdish society in Iran; social, cultural and political movements; and modern historiography.

Current Research:

• The Emergence of Modern Kurdish National Historiography (funded by the British Academy)
  • 2025 August: “A Study in the Emergence of Kurdish National History-writing in the Twentieth Century”. LSE MEC Blog, 3 Sep. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/09/03/a-study-in-the-emergence-of-kurdish-national-history-writing-in-the-twentieth-century/
  • September: “Early Modern and Modern Kurdish National Historians”. LSE MEC Blog, 4 Oct. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/10/04/early-modern-and-modern-kurdish-national-historians/
  • November: “The Zheen Centre for Documentation and Research”. 5 Nov. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/11/05/the-zheen-centrhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/09/03/a-study-in-the-emergence-of-kurdish-national-history-writing-in-the-twentieth-century/

Highlighted Work:

• Iranian Kurdistan Under the Islamic Republic: Change, Revolution, and Resistance (event recording of book launch)
• The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran: Modernity, Modernization, and Social Change (event recording of book launch)

Books:

• Iranian Kurdistan under the Islamic Republic: Change, Revolution, Resistance. London: B. Tauris, 2024.
• The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran: Modernity, Modernization, and Social Change 1921-1979. London: I. B. Tauris, 2022.

Book Chapters:

• “The Clash of Sovereignties in Iran: Kurdistan and (semi-)Sovereignty,” in Sovereignty in Iran: Challenges to Eurocentrism from Ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic, ed. Shabnam J. Holliday, 2026.
• “Women, The 1979 Revolution, and the Kurdish Movement” in Shahrzad Mojab (ed.) Kurdish Women Through History, Culture and Resistance. Mazda Publication, 2024.
• “Sherko Bekas and the Emergence of Postnational Kurdish Literature” in Essays on Modern Kurdish Literature, Eds Alireza Korangy and Mahlagha Mortezaee. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
• “The Transformation of Cross-border Trade Into Kolbering In Iranian Kurdistan” in Kurdish Diplomacy: Negotiations and Peace Processes in Kurdistan and Beyond. Vienna, Praesen Verlag, 2022.

Articles:

• “Rıza Şah Dönemi’nde İran Kürdistanı, 1925-1941 [Iranian Kurdistan under Reza Shah],” Kürt Tarihi, 2025, Trans. from English into Turkish: Metin Atmaca. https://kurttarihidergisi.com/tum-sayilarimiz/sayi57
• "The Visual Narratives of the 1979 Iranian Revolution," Middle East Critique, 34 (1), 103–119.
• “The armed struggle of the 1980s in Iranian Kurdistan: a space for survival,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 50:5 (2023), 1091–1111. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2057280 2021
• “The Duality of Official and Local in Modern Iran: Historical and Intellectual Foundations,” Middle Eastern Studies, 57:5 (Mar. 2021), 777-792. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2021.1891892 2020
• “The Roots and the Consequences of the 1979 Iranian Revolution: A Kurdish Perspective,” Middle Eastern Studies, 56:3 (2020), 339-358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1722651 2019
• “Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History,” Kurdish Studies Journal, 7:1 (2019), 106-110. https://brill.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9789004708488/BP000015.xml?srsltid=AfmBOoozVSwKT00eyFI9C6e2A50MRTE4mX0zAB8njw-VB3E7isvrEYyj 2019
• “The Last Mufti of Kurdistan and Its Revision of Kurdish History,” Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 6:3 (Dec. 2019), 1-12. https://www.ejecs.org/index.php/JECS/article/view/218 2017
• “Amir Hassanpour and the Advance of Kurdish Social Studies in Iran”, Derwaze: Kurdish Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 2 (Apr. 2018), 82-95. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325319886_Amir_Hassanpour_and_the_Advance_of_Kurdish_Social_Studies_in_Iran_Derwaze_Kurdish_Journal_of_Social_Sciences_and_Humanities_No_2_Apr_2018_82-95 2017
• “The Clash of National Narratives and the Marginalisation of Kurdish-Iranian Historiography,” Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 4:4 (Dec. 2017), 335-355. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2347798917727894

Past teaching roles:

Armed struggle and political movements in the Middle East’, Peace and Conflict Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Introduction to the Middle Eastern History Module, School of History, University of St Andrews.

Middle Eastern Literary & Cultural Contexts, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews.