León Rodríguez Zahar, Mexican, is a graduate of El Colegio de México and a career diplomat. He has a Ph.D in History of Art and specialises in Middle Eastern subjects. He has had postings at the United Nations and in Libya, Egypt, Palestine and Spain. El Colegio de México has published his work: La revolución islámica de Irán (The Islamic Revolution of Iran) (1991); Líbano, espejo del Medio Oriente (Libya, Mirror of the Middle East) (2004); Arte islámico, evocación del Paraíso (Islamic Art, an Evocation of Paradise) (2008). He has contributed to the newspaper Reforma, in the cultural section El Ángel. His first novel, La tercera diosa (The Third Goddess) was published in 1999 by Plaza y Janés. With the publisher Artes de México he has published Arquitectura imaginaria, Al-Azrak, el Palacio Azul (Imaginary Architecture, Al-Azrak, the Blue Palace) (1999) and Taracea islámica y mudéjar (Islamic and Mudejar Inlay Design) (2000), the last two with an introduction by Alberto Ruy Sánchez.