Kahn Liberal Arts Institute

Suleiman A. Mourad is a historian of Islamic and Middle Eastern cultures whose work primarily focuses on Muslims as makers and interpreters of their own religious, historical, and legal traditions. As such, his major contribution to modern knowledge about Islam and Islamic history is that his publications have demonstrated the active agency of Muslims, from the seventh century until today, in fashioning creative religious and historical discourses to help answer the challenges they faced. At Smith, he holds the Myra M. Sampson chair as Professor of Religion and Middle East Studies, and teaches courses on Islamic history, religious thought, law, and culture, and on comparative themes relating to Middle Eastern history and religion (Jerusalem, Crusades, etc.). He also teaches on food as embedded in a complex web of interconnected environments.

Suleiman was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He received his college education at the American University of Beirut (B.S. mathematics, 1990; M.A. history, 1996), and earned his Ph.D. at Yale University (Arabic and Islamic studies, 2004). Aside from his professional work and publications, which include The Mosaic of Islam (Verso 2016), Routledge Handbook on Jerusalem (Routledge 2019), Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period (Hackett 2021), and Ibn ʿAsakir of Damascus: Champion of Sunni Islam in the Time of the Crusades (Oneworld 2021), he has contributed to several historical documentaries—such as Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury (CNN 2021), and The Sultan and the Saint (PBS 2017)—and has written on historical and current issues in outlets, such as the New Left Review–Sidecar, 180Post.com, and the BBC History magazine. He is currently finishing a book about Lebanese food cultures and the symbiotic relationship/interdependence of people, animals, and nature, with recipes of famous dishes.

Suleiman is committed to collaborative and interdisciplinary thinking and conversations. He was been fellow of the National Endowment of the Humanities (2007–08), the Institut d’Études Avancées in Nantes (different occasions between 2012 and 2021), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Berlin 2013–14, and Munich 2025), the Zukunftskolleg/University of Konstanz (2025), and American University of Beirut (2026). Aside from that, he received several grants for his research from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the American Philosophical Society, the Mellon Foundation, among others.