About SherAli Tareen

SherAli Tareen is Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His second book is called Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire (Columbia University Press, 2023). His other academic publications are available here. Listener feedback is most welcome.

NBN Episodes hosted by SherAli:

Tahera Qutbuddin, trans., "Nahj al-Balāghah: The Wisdom and Eloquence of ʿAlī" (Brill, 2024)

June 18, 2024

Nahj al-Balāghah: The Wisdom and Eloquence of ʿAlī

Tahera Qutbuddin, trans.
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Nahj al-Balagha is among the most powerful, consequential, and linguistically brilliant masterpieces of Arabic and of Islamic thought and literature. …

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence, "The Qur'an: A Verse Translation" (Liveright, 2024)

April 23, 2024

The Qur'an

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In their landmark new translation of the Qur’an, The Qur’an: A Verse Translation (LIveright, 2024), M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence translate the…

Annika Schmeding, "Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 7, 2024

Sufi Civilities

Annika Schmeding
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Annika Schmeding’s new book Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan (Stanford UP, 2023) is a deeply sensitive and ric…

Vernon James Schubel, "Teaching Humanity:  An Alternative Introduction to Islam" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

February 27, 2024

Teaching Humanity

Vernon James Schubel
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his splendid new book, Teaching Humanity: An Alternative Introduction to Islam (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023), Vernon Schubel makes a compelling case f…

Jonathan A. C. Brown, "Slavery and Islam" (Oneworld Academic, 2019)

February 21, 2024

Slavery and Islam

Jonathan A. C. Brown
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his majestic and encyclopedic new book Slavery and Islam (Oneworld Academic, 2019), Jonathan A. C. Brown presents a sweeping analysis of Muslim int…

Amira Mittermaier, "Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times" (U California Press, 2019)

February 12, 2024

Giving to God

Amira Mittermaier
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In her stunning new book, Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times (University of California Press, 2019), Amira Mittermaier, Associate P…

Khurram Hussain, "Islam as Critique: Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Challenge of Modernity" (Bloomsbury, 2019)

January 1, 2024

Islam as Critique

Khurram Hussain
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Delighting in Khurram Hussain’s consistently sparkling prose is reason enough to read his new book Islam as Critique: Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Challe…

Kristian Petersen, "Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Language, and Scripture in the Han Kitab" (Oxford UP, 2017)

December 28, 2023

Interpreting Islam in China

Kristian Petersen
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his monumental new book, Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Language, and Scripture in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017), Kristia…

Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, "The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe: Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia Herzegovina" (Stanford UP, 2023)

October 20, 2023

The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe

Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In her sparkling and splendid new book The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe: Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia Herzegovina (Stanford University Press, 2023), Leyl…

Divya Cherian, "Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia" (U California Press, 2023)

September 22, 2023

Merchants of Virtue

Divya Cherian
Hosted by SherAli Tareen
Listen:

In her formidable and fiercely well-argued new book Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia (U Califor…

Hafsa Kanjwal, "Colonizing Kashmir: State-building under Indian Occupation" (Stanford UP, 2023)

September 8, 2023

Colonizing Kashmir

Hafsa Kanjwal
Hosted by SherAli Tareen
Listen:

In her scintillating and brilliant new book, Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building Under Indian Occupation (Stanford UP, 2023), Hafsa Kanjwal details and…

Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst, "I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America" (UNC Press, 2023)

August 25, 2023

I Cannot Write My Life

Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst
Hosted by SherAli Tareen
Listen:

Carl Ernst’s and Mbaye Lo’s new book I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America (UNC Press, 2023) is a fascinating …

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, "Nur Baba: A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul" (Routledge, 2023)

June 6, 2023

Nur Baba

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu
Hosted by SherAli Tareen
Listen:

This conversation is with Brett Wilson, who has composed the first English translation of the classic and controversial novel from late Ottoman Turkey…

Shenila Khoja-Moolji, "Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality" (Oxford UP, 2023)

May 5, 2023

Rebuilding Community

Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In her moving, sophisticated, and analytically groundbreaking new book Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim S…

Jonathan A. C. Brown, "Islam and Blackness" (Oneworld Academic, 2022)

April 7, 2023

Islam and Blackness

Jonathan A. C. Brown
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Jonathan Brown’s Islam and Blackness (Oneworld Academic, 2022) is a thorough and thoroughly riveting study of the tensions and conceptions of Blacknes…

Audrey Truschke, "The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule" (Columbia UP, 2021)

March 10, 2023

The Language of History

Audrey Truschke
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In her layered and theoretically astute new book The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule (Columbia UP, 2021), Audrey Truschke…

Shahzad Bashir, "A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures" (MIT Press, 2022)

February 10, 2023

A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures

Shahzad Bashir
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his innovative and conceptually ingenious new online, open-access, interactive book A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures (MIT Press, 2022), S…

Yohanan Friedmann, "Messianic Ideas and Movements in Sunni Islam" (Oneworld Academic, 2022)

October 21, 2022

Messianic Ideas and Movements in Sunni Islam

Yohanan Friedmann
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his fascinating and painstakingly research new book Messianic Ideas and Movements in Sunni Islam (Oneworld Academic, 2022), the noted scholar of Is…

Asad Q. Ahmed, "Palimpsests of Themselves: Logic and Commentary in Postclassical Muslim South Asia" (U California Press, 2022)

August 26, 2022

Palimpsests of Themselves

Asad Q. Ahmed
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his dense yet delightful new book Palimpsests of Themselves: Logic and Commentary in Postclassical Muslim South Asia (University of California Pres…

Annie Tracy Samuel, "The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

July 1, 2022

The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War

Annie Tracy Samuel
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (Cambridge UP, 2021) represents a fascinating and caref…

Caleb Elfenbein, "Fear in Our Hearts: What Islamophobia Teaches Us About America" (NYU Press, 2021)

June 3, 2022

Fear in Our Hearts

Caleb Elfenbein
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his sparkling and politically urgent new book Fear in Our Hearts: What Islamophobia Teaches Us About America (NYU Press, 2021), Caleb Elfenbein sho…

Nauman Faizi, "God, Science, and Self: Muhammad Iqbal's Reconstruction of Religious Thought" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2021)

February 11, 2022

God, Science, and Self

Nauman Faizi
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his brilliant and philosophically charged new book God, Science, and Self: Muhammad Iqbal's Reconstruction of Religious Thought (McGill-Queen's UP,…

Bruce B. Lawrence, "Islamicate Cosmopolitan Spirit" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021)

January 24, 2022

Islamicate Cosmopolitan Spirit

Bruce B. Lawrence
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In his new book cum manifesto, Islamicate Cosmopolitan Spirit (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), legendary scholar of Islam Bruce Lawrence outlines his politico…

Jocelyn Hendrickson, "Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa" (Harvard UP, 2021)

December 17, 2021

Leaving Iberia

Jocelyn Hendrickson
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In her landmark new book Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa (Harvard UP, 2021), Jocelyn Hendrickson launches a se…