I am a historian of Africa and Islam. I earned my Ph.D. in 2004 at the University of Pennsylvania where I trained in African History, African-American History, and Islamic Intellectual History.
My research spans the last thousand years, centering on West Africa, while reaching into the Mediterranean lands of Islam and the Atlantic worlds of the African Diaspora.
What has it meant to be an African Muslim? This question interests me across space and time, leading me to publish works on the histories of Qur’an schooling, Muslim Mysticism, Slavery and Abolition, and Islamic Devotional poetry.
My work seeks to engage with, intervene in, and push the edges of, African and Islamic studies.
Profile photo by Tasneem Muryam