Dr. Muhammad H. Faghfoory is professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University where he teaches courses on Islam, Sufism, Islamic Art and Spirituality, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Islamic Political thought, and Shi‘ite Islam and other related courses.

He received his Master’s degrees in history and Middle East studies from the University of Illinois, and a Master’s degree and a PhD in political science and Middle East studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at the University of Tehran and has been a visiting scholar at the University of California-Los Angeles, Islamic Manuscripts Specialist at Princeton University, and at the Library of Congress, and adjunct professor of Middle East History at Mary-Washington University in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Dr. Faghfoory has written, translated, and edited nine books, numerous book chapters, articles, and book reviews. His works have been published by the State University of New York Press, University Press of America, Oxford Encyclopedia of the Muslim World, International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Journal, and the International Journal of Shi@‘i Studies. He has lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, and participated in interfaith dialogue organized by American media. His most recent work is a long monograph on “War and Peace in Shi‘ite Islam,” a project sponsored by Peace Research Institute of Norway and will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. Currently, he is working on a book on Clergy-State Relations in Iran: 1979—present.