James Kritzeck (born July 6, 1930, St. Cloud, Minnesota) is a scholar of Islam who specialises in Islamic literature and its translation. He was educated at Saint John's Abbey (1945-47), the University of Minnesota (BA, 1949), Princeton University (MA, 1952), and Harvard University (PhD, 1954); he was elected to the Society of Fellows at Harvard University in 1952. As well as travelling through much of the Islamic world in order to increase his knowledge of Islamic works, Kritzeck studied Islam through reading and teaching, with (among others) Henry Corbin, Louis Massignon and Herbert Mason. He edited Anthology of Islamic Literature, a collection of Islamic writings from the Qur'an up until the 18th century. Ironically a sceptic of translation, Kritzeck strove to include only the finest an