Dirk Collier

Dirk Collier is an author, lecturer and expert in Asian and Indian culture. His passion for Asian culture and history was aroused as a result of his travels throughout the continent, predominantly in China and India.

Apart from books, he has also written articles for various journals and occasionally lectures at universities and cultural institutions. Professionally, he is a lawyer and a businessman and serves on the board of several organizations.

As an author, in 2011, he published The Emperor’s Writings, a historical novel on the life and times of Akbar the Great (1542-1605); in 2013 came his essay Paths to Peace: Religion, Ethics and Tolerance in a Globalizing World, with a foreword by H.E. Herman Van Rompuy, honorary President of the European Council, and in 2015, he published The Great Mughals and Their India, a non-fiction chronicle of one of the greatest dynasties in world history – the Mughal –from its founder Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the clan.

He studied law and holds an MBA.

Dirk Collier was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1956. He studied Laws and got a Master of Laws and Executive MBA.

Collier’s career includes roles in research and manufacturing companies, as a board of several companies and organizations and as an author and thought leader. In fact, authorship and history is his main passion, Dirk owns a personal library of several thousand books in nine different languages.

Dirk Collier spent 31 years with J&J (actually, with Janssen, J&J’s largest overseas affiliate and leading research and manufacturing company of J&J’s pharmaceutical business); and extensive experience at ExCom level, including extensive travels throughout Asia, predominantly in China and India.

As a board member, he serves on the board of several companies and organizations, including SD Worx, a leading European HR services company.

He is the author of a number of books and articles on law, philosophy and history, including
The Emperor’s Writings: Memories of Akbar the Great, a fictionalized “autobiography” of Akbar the Great (in the genre of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius) or Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memories of Hadrian), and The Great Mughals and Their India, a non-fiction history of the Mughal dynasty; and Paths to Peace: Religion, Ethics & Tolerance in a Globalizing World.

About The Emperor’s Writings: Memories of Akbar the Great

Akbar the Great (1543-1605), the greatest of the Mughal emperors, was not only the most powerful and wealthiest monarch of his time, but undoubtedly, the most enlightened one. A firm proponent of universal tolerance and religious freedom for all, he welcomed to his court, representatives of all religions. Akbar succeeded in unifying the various creeds of Hindustan under his victorious banner and created the strong Mughal Empire. Admirably researched and written, The Emperor’s Writings narrates the true story of Akbar’s life and times in a fictionalized manner. It delineates his swift and spectacular rise to absolute power and his remarkably modern vision of a prosperous, diverse and tolerant Hindustan, against the backdrop of his eventful personal life, his relationship with his favorite wife and the tragic conflict with Salim (Jahangir), his only surviving son and bitter rival. The book offers a unique historical perspective on the heart and soul of the Indian subcontinent.

About The Great Mughals and Their India

A definitive, comprehensive and engrossing chronicle of one of the greatest dynasties of the world – the Mughal – from its founder Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the clan

The magnificent Mughal legacy – the world-famous Taj Mahal being the most prominent among countless other examples – is an inexhaustible source of inspiration to historians, writers, movie makers, artists and ordinary mortals alike. Mughal history abounds with all the ingredients of classical drama: ambition and frustration, hope and despair, grandeur and decline, love and hate and loyalty and betrayal. In other words: it is great to read and offers ample food for thought on the human condition.

Much more importantly, Mughal history deserves to be widely read and reflected upon, because of its lasting cultural and socio-political relevance to today’s world in general and the Indian subcontinent in particular. The Mughals have left us with a legacy that cannot be erased. With regard to the eventful reigns of Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and their successors, crucial questions arise: Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? And more importantly, what should we learn from their triumphs and failures? The author believes that history books should be accurate, informative and entertaining. In The Great Mughals and Their India, he has kept these objectives in mind in an attempt to narrate Mughal history from their perspective. At the same time, he does not shy away from dealing with controversial issues.

Here is a fascinating and riveting saga that brings alive a spectacular bygone era – authentically and convincingly.

About Paths to Peace: Religion, Ethics & Tolerance in a Globalizing World

Black and white. Left and right.

Believers and infidels. Us and them.

The list is endless and should make it painfully obvious: differences between people are inherently dangerous.

Difference divides; it breeds prejudices, fear and hatred; and sometimes, it kills.

This is what Paths to Peace is about: how to avoid the traps of hatred, even if there is no hope of avoiding, removing or convincing those with whom we disagree. No religion or cultural tradition is immune to the poison of fanaticism and hatred. In each and every one of them, however, paths to peace can be found.

Highly erudite and eminently readable, Paths to Peace offers much-needed food for thought and promotes rational and detached reflection on what usually are highly sensitive and emotional subjects: identity, ideology and religious or philosophical beliefs.

Dirk Collier is an author, lecturer and expert in Asian and Indian culture. His passion for Asian culture and history was aroused as a result of his travels throughout the continent, predominantly in China and India.