An Interview with Professor David Cook on Islamic Studies

Abstract

David Cook is a Professor of religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University, specializing in Islam. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994. He later received his M.A. degree in 1998 and his Ph.D. degree with the study titled “The Beginnings of Islam in Syria during the Umayyad Period”, which he prepared under the supervision of Fred Donner, Walter Kaegi, and Patricia Crone from the University of Chicago (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) in March 2002. He received most of his training in Arabic and Islamic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Then he took training in other languages and the research methodology of Islamic studies at the University of Chicago. His areas of specialization include early Islamic history and development, Muslim apocalyptic literature and movements (classical and contemporary), radical Islam, jihad, jihadist movements in Islam such as Salafism, historical astronomy, Judeo-Arabic literature, and West African Islam. This study was prepared as part of an interview with Prof. Cook in July 2022 at Rice University. It covers a number of subjects, including Cook’s educational background, his research into Islamic topics, his methodology, and his opinions on Western Islamic literature.