Ryhaan Shah

Ryhaan Shah is an Indo-Guyanese writer born in Berbice, Guyana. She is active in Guyanese public life as the President of the Guyanese Indian Heritage Association.

Her first novel, A Silent Life (Peepal Tree, 2005), which won the 2007 Guyana Prize for Literature First Book Award, combines strong social themes in the context of memories of 20th-century Guyanese history from the point of view of Muslim women of South Asian extraction, with a narrative that explores mythic patterns through elements of the other-worldly. Her second novel, Weaving Water (Cutting Edge Press, 2013), deals with Guyanese history in a comparable way but from a Hindu point of view and with a more chronological treatment.

In November 2009, Ryhaan Shah was chosen among "500 Most Influential Muslims in the World" (2009 edition) in a publication by the Prince Al-waleed Bin Talaal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University, Washington DC, in conjunction with the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan. The introduction to the publication states that it "provides a window into the movers and shakers of the Muslim world. We have strived to highlight people who are influential as Muslims, that is, people whose influence is derived from their practice of Islam or from the fact that they are Muslim. We think that this gives valuable insight into the different ways that Muslims impact the world, and also shows the diversity of how people are living as Muslims today."