About

Alexander D. Knysh is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan, based in the Department of Middle East Studies. He holds a PhD from the Institute for Oriental Studies at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), obtained in 1986. His research interests encompass Islamic mysticism (Sufism) in all its forms, Islamic theological, philosophical, and juridical thought in its historical development, and the vicissitudes of Islamic and Islamist movements in local contexts, especially in Yemen, North Africa, Russia, and the Northern Caucasus. He focuses on conflicts between Sufis and Salafis, Islam in Russia, and the idea of the Islamic state across different historical and geographical settings. Knysh's current projects include critically examining Sufism from a modern perspective and exploring the use of Islam as a resistance ideology in the Northern Caucasus. He is the Executive Editor of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and a section editor for Sufism in the Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition. Additionally, he is editing the translation of al-Suyuti’s Qur’anic Encyclopedia. His teaching interests include Sufism, Qur’anic Studies, Modern Islamic Movements, Doxography, and Islamic Intellectual History.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Philosophy
• Literature
• Art
• Epistemology
• Religious studies
• Theology
• Law
• Sociology
• History
• Social Science
• Aesthetics
• Linguistics

Selected publications

• The Murder of ‘Uthman, the Fitna Wars, and the Rise and Consolidation of the Umayyad Dynasty

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Problem of the Just Ruler and the First Divisions within the Community

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• : <i>Sufi Masters and the Creation of Saintly Spheres in Medieval Syria</i>

  Renaissance Quarterly · 2024-09-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Shi‘ism as a Revolutionary Movement

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• One Classroom, Different Perspectives: Promoting Mutual Understanding between “Secular” and “Religious” Students of Islamic Studies in Russia and the United States

  Islamic studies journal. · 2024-06-05

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The article discusses the results from several co-taught courses in Islamic studies shared as a virtual exchange between the University of Michigan (U-M), USA, and Saint Petersburg State University (SPbU), Russian Federation. These courses were designed and taught to expand the range of perspectives to which students were exposed and allow them to learn how their study subject is conceptualized and studied by their peers in the partner country. The SPbU student cohort included graduates of Islamic religious colleges from different regions of the Russian Federation who shared the classroom with “secular” university students specializing in Islamic studies. The U-M cohort included students of various religious, ethnic, and academic backgrounds. In addition to weekly online meetings, the international teams met virtually outside class to prepare questions for weekly synchronous discussions and to work on a group presentation to be delivered at the end of the semester.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Islam as a Political Force and Vehicle of Opposition

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Ideology and Practice of Globalized Jihadism

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Intellectual Struggles in Premodern Islam

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Islam in the Gunpowder Empires

  2024-08-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Philomena Meechan

  Michigan United

  6 shared

• Todd Austin

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  6 shared

• Jane Dammen McAuliffe

  4 shared

• Daria Ulanova

  St Petersburg University

  3 shared

• A. I. Matochkina

  Institute of Philosophy

  3 shared

• Peter J. Scales

  University of Melbourne

  3 shared

• Andrei Boiarov

  2 shared

• Christian Lange

  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

  2 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Near Eastern Studies

  Institute of Oriental Studies

  1986