Malise Ruthven was born in Dublin of Hiberno-Scottish parentage. A former scriptwriter with the BBC Arabic and World Services, he holds an MA in English Literature and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. He has taught Islamic studies, cultural history and comparative religion at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Birkbeck College, University of London, the University of California, San Diego, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and at the Colorado College, Colorado Springs. He is the author of Islam in the World (Oxford University Press 1984, 1991, 2006 ) a highly acclaimed overview of Islamic faith and history. His review essays and blogs appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and in 2004 London's Prospect magazine ranked him among the 100 top public intellectuals in Britain.