I am a historian of Islamic thought working across the medieval and modern periods. My background is in the study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism), specifically the theoretical Sufism of Ibn ʿArabī and his followers, on which I have written two monographs – one on the history of the idea of the ‘perfect human’ (al-insān al-kāmil) in Sufi thought, the other on ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī’s Sufi view of the different prophets, scriptures, and religions. I continue to conduct research on Sufism, and have also worked on topics in Islamic law, modern Islamic thought, and the Jewish and Christian study of Islam. My two most recent books are aimed at a general readership: A Short History of Islamic Thought (Head of Zeus / OUP, 2021) is an introduction to Islamic intellectual history that was chosen as a Book of the Year in The Spectator and Engelsberg Ideas; The Renewal of Islam: Thinkers and Believers of the Modern Era (Head of Zeus / OUP, 2026) is an intellectual history of Islamic movements of renewal and reform between the 18th and the 21st centuries. Currently, my main research project takes attitudes to music and other forms of ‘amusement’ (lahw) as a key to understanding different types of Islamic piety, while I am also studying the ways in which Sufi thinkers in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī have thought about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and, with Ron Nettler, the ways in which modern Islamic thinkers have interpreted the Arab-Islamic intellectual heritage (turāth). My approach to all my research centres on the close reading of texts in Arabic and Persian, and I also like to engage in comparative analysis with other religious traditions, especially Christianity.  

I am a big believer in public engagement and, in addition to my academic work, I have written for numerous popular publications, including The Daily Telegraph, The Literary Review, The Critic, Engelsberg Ideas, The Church Times, History Today, and Antigone. I have also spoken at several literary festivals across the UK and have been interviewed about Islam and religion on the TV and radio. I am passionate about widening access to Arabic and Islamic Studies and often speak on Arabic and Islamic topics at schools.   

I love teaching, especially here at Oxford. I teach papers on Islamic religion to both undergraduates and graduates at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and am very grateful for the opportunity to teach the subject through primary sources in the original languages – a tradition that Oxford has done well to preserve. I also supervise graduate students working on Sufism, Shiʿism, Islamic law, Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations, and modern Islamic thought, and am happy to receive enquiries from prospective students looking to develop research projects in these areas. As Tutor in Arabic at Pembroke, I am responsible (together with Prof. Nicolai Sinai) for supporting and supervising the progress of Pembroke undergraduates reading Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew.  

I am a consultant editor of The Journal of Islamic Studies, and a member of the editorial advisory board of The Maghreb Review, the advisory board of the Oxford Interfaith Forum’s Philosophy in Interfaith Contexts programme, and the academic advisory body of the Oxford Pakistan Programme. I am a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Pembroke alumnus.