Peter Lamborn Wilson (b. New York, 1945) is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, perhaps best known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), based on a historical review of pirate utopias. He sometimes writes under the name Hakim Bey. (The pseudonym may or may not have been a name-of-convenience or Collective_pseudonyms used by other radical writers since the 1970s, and is a combination of the Arabic word for 'wise man' and a last name common in the Moorish Science Temple. Also in Turkish, Hakim means judge and Bey is a generic word for a gentleman generally used after a name).

He spent two years in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and seven years in Iran (where he was affiliated with the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy), leaving during the Islamic Revolution. In the 1980s, his ideas evolved from a kind of Guénonist neo-tradionalism to a synthesis of anarchism and Situationist ideas with heterodox Sufism and Neopaganism, describing his ideas as "anarchist ontology" or "immediatism". In the past he has worked with the not-for-profit publishing project Autonomedia, in Brooklyn, New York.

In addition to his writings on anarchism and Temporary Autonomous Zones, Wilson has written essays on such diverse topics as Tong traditions, the utopian Charles Fourier, the fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio, the connections between Sufism and ancient Celtic culture, sacred pederasty in the Sufi tradition, technology and Luddism, and Amanita muscaria use in ancient Ireland.

Bey's poetic 'texts' and poems have appeared in: P.A.N.; Panthology One, Two, and Three; Ganymede; Exquisite Corpse; NAMBLA Bulletin; the various Acolyte Reader paperbacks. Many of these poems, including the 'Sandburg' series, are collected in the as-yet unpublished DogStar volume. Currently his works can be found regularly in publications like Fifth Estate and the NYC-based First of the Month.

Bey's translations include a volume of the poems of Abu Nuwas, O Tribe That Loves Boys. He has also published at least one novel, The Chronicles of Qamar: Crowstone (a sword and sorcery boy-love tale) (Coltsfoot Press, 1983).

Wilson is a controversial figure within the anarchist milieu. Many social anarchists denounce his ideas as "lifestyle anarchism", seeing his ideas as a kind of extreme individualist anarchism that is ultimately apolitical. Many atheist and materialist anarchists dislike the tendency toward mysticism, occultism, and irrationalism in his work. He is also reviled by some anarchists for his defense of spiritual pederasty.

Writings

• The Winter Calligraphy of Ustad Selim, & Other Poems (1975) ISBN 0903880059
• Science and Technology in Islam (1976) (with Leonard Harrow)
• Traditional Modes of Contemplation & Action (1977) (editor, with Yusuf Ibish)
• Nasir-I Khusraw: 40 Poems from the Divan (1977) (translator and editor, with Gholam Reza Aavani) ISBN 0877737304
• Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order of Iran (1978) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady)
• Angels (1980, 1994) ISBN 0500110174 (abridged edition: ISBN 0500810443)
• Weaver of Tales: Persian Picture Rugs (1980) (with Karl Schlamminger)
• Crowstone: The Chronicles of Qamar (1983) (as Hakim Bey)
• CHAOS: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism (1985) (as Hakim Bey)
• Semiotext(e) USA (1987) (co-editor, with Jim Fleming)
• Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy (1988) ISBN 0936756152
• The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry (1988) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady) ISBN 0933999658
• Semiotext(e) SF (1989) (co-editor, with Rudy Rucker and Robert Anton Wilson)
• TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism (1991) (as Hakim Bey; incorporates full text of CHAOS) ISBN 0936756764, ISBN 1570271518
• Immediatism (1992, 1994) (as Hakim Bey; originally published as Radio Sermonettes) ISBN 1873176422
• Aimless Wandering: Chuang Tzu's Chaos Linguistics (1993) (as Hakim Bey)
• Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam (1993) ISBN 0872862755
• The Little Book of Angel Wisdom (1993, 1997) ISBN 1852304367 ISBN 1862040486
• O Tribe That Loves Boys: The Poetry of Abu Nuwas (1993) (translator and editor, as Hakim Bey) ISBN 9080085731
• Pirate Utopias (1995, 2003) ISBN 1570271585
• Millennium (1996) (as Hakim Bey) ISBN 1570270457
• "Shower of Stars" Dream & Book: The Initiatic Dream in Sufism and Taoism (1996)
• Escape from the Nineteenth Century (1998) ISBN 1570270732
• Wild Children (1998) (co-editor, with Dave Mandl)
• Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World (1999) (co-editor, with Bill Weinberg) ISBN 1570270929
• Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma (1999) ISBN 0872863263
• rain queer (2005) ISBN 0976634112
• Orgies Of The Hemp Eaters (2004) (co-editor as Hakim Bey with Abel Zug) ISBN 1570271437
• Gothick Institutions (2005) ISBN 0977004902

See also

• Autonomedia
• Pirate utopias
• Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ)
• Reclaim the Streets

External links

• Many of his books and articles are available online here: The Writings of Hakim Bey
• Most of Wilson's political books are published by Autonomedia
• July 2004 interview from the Brooklyn Rail
• Audio of 1993 talk featuring Hakim Bey

Islamic politics and Islamic world studies | American anarchists | Postmodernists | Political philosophers | Underground | History of mystic traditions | Occult writers

Peter Lamborn Wilson | Hakim Bey | Hakim Bey | Peter Lamborn Wilson | Hakim Bey