Muhammad Ali Mojaradi was born and raised in Michigan in an Iranian immigrant household. At age fifteen - despite the protests of his family - he moved to Tehran where he lived with his grandparents and attended high school.

In 2015 he moved back to the United States, later studying Economics and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Michigan while working as a researcher and Persian translator.

At UofM he studied Persian poetry formally for the first time and founded @persianpoetics, hoping to expose his friends to the world of Persian poetry. He also chose the pen name ‘sharghzadeh’ meaning ‘struck by the east’ in Persian, an antonym of ‘gharbzadeh.’ 

Saʿdi’s grave in Shiraz, Iran.

Petra, Jordan.

After completing his studies at the University of Michigan, he traveled to Jordan where he studied Arabic at Qasid Arabic Institute and Jordan University. The pandemic forced him to cut his studies short and return to America after initially planning to remain in Jordan to continue his study of Arabic and Islam.

Upon returning to America, he began to work on @persianpoetics full-time, eventually launching the viral #rumiwasmuslim campaign, attracting international media attention.

Following popular demand, Muhammad began working on his first book, a translation of Rumi’s poetry, which is now forthcoming. In 2020 he returned to Tehran to locate rare books and further study Persian poetry while immersed in the Persian language.

In 2021 Muhammad began teaching Persian privately, and shortly afterward he began hosting live courses, first teaching a general introduction to Persian poetry, followed by a study of Saʿdi’s Gulistān, Bustān, and Pand-Nāma. He also taught a course on Female poets, book one of Rumi’s magnum opus the Masnawiand Hāfiz.

In 2023, he moved to Kuwait, where he currently resides. His debut book of Rumi translations “The Flame of Love” is out now.

He is available to host talks, lectures, and courses focused on Persian poetry. Muhammad also accepts translation projects of all kinds. For any type of inquiry, you can contact him via Twitter or email: mmojarad(at)umich(dot)edu.

Rumis famous ‘Song of the Reed’ in Tehran, Iran.