About the Author

Bruno De Nicola is a final year PhD candidate in Persian Studies at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. His research deals with the social and intellectual history of Mediaeval Iran and Central Asia, particularly the interaction between Sedentary and Nomadic societies, and the role of women in Inner Asia. He has contributed to various academic publications in Germany, France, Spain and the UK.Yonatan Mendel is finishing his PhD at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. His research deals with the politics of Arabic language studies in the Israeli-Jewish society through an analysis of the place of the military and the Ministry of Defence in devising language policies. He is a contributor to the London Review of Books, writing mostly about Israeli society and politics.Husain Qutbuddin received his PhD in Qur'anic Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2009. He has held a EUME-fellowship at Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Academy of Advanced Studies in South-Asian Islam and Arabic (AASSIA), Mumbai. He has contributed to several publications in the EU, India, and the US, primarily on Qur'anic interpretation by the Fatimid-Ismailis as well as present-day Muslim communities.