Education
Pipes attended the Harvard pre-school, then received a private school education, partly abroad. He enrolled in Harvard University, where his father was then still a professor, in the fall of 1967; for his first two years he studied mathematics, but has said: "I wasn't smart enough. So I chose to become a historian."[15] He said he "found the material too abstract."[16]
He credits visits to the Sahara Desert in 1968 and the Sinai Desert in 1969 for piquing his interest in the Arabic language,[15] and visits to Niger and Tunisia for piquing his interest in the Islamic world, and he changed his major to Middle East history.[16]
For the next two years Pipes studied Arabic and the Middle East, obtaining a B.A. in history in 1971; his senior thesis was titled A Medieval Islamic Debate: The World Created in Eternity, a study of Al-Ghazali. [15]
After graduating in 1971, Pipes spent nearly two years in Cairo. He learned Arabic and studied the Quran, which he states gave him an appreciation for Islam.[16]
Career in academia
Pipes returned to Harvard in 1973 and obtained a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history[14] in 1978.
His Ph.D. dissertation eventually became his first book, 'Slave Soldiers and Islam', in 1981.
He studied abroad for six years, three of which were spent in Egypt, where he wrote a book on colloquial Egyptian Arabic which was published in 1983.
He switched his academic interest from medieval Islamic studies to modern Islam in the late 1970s.[14]
He taught world history at the University of Chicago from 1978 to 1982, history at Harvard from 1983 to 1984, and policy and strategy at the Naval War College from 1984 to 1986.
In 1983, Pipes served on the policy-planning staff at the State Department.[17]
Post-academia
Pipes largely retired from academia after 1986, though in 2007 he taught a course titled "International Relations: Islam and Politics" as a visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy.[18] Pipes told an interviewer from Harvard Magazine that he has "the simple politics of a truck driver, not the complex ones of an academic. My viewpoint is not congenial with institutions of higher learning.".[15] His articles have been translated into numerous languages, including Latin.[19]
From 1986 on, Pipes worked for various think tanks. From 1986 to 1993 he was director of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and editor of its journal, Orbis. In 1990 he organized the Middle East Forum as a unit of FPRI; it became an independent organization with himself as head. Pipes edits its journal, the Middle East Quarterly. In 2002, he established Campus Watch as a project of the Middle East Forum.
In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Pipes for the board of the United States Institute of Peace. After a controversy including a filibuster by Democratic Senators,[20] Pipes obtained the position by recess appointment.[15]
