Alexander Knysh is the Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan and the principal researcher of a research project on political Islam/Islamism at St. Petersburg State University, Russia. His academic interests include Sufism, Qur’anic studies, the history of theological, philosophical and jurisprudential thought, and modern Islamic/Islamist movements with a comparative point of view. He has numerous academic publications on these subjects, including ten books. Alexander Knysh serves as the section editor for “Sufism” on the Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition as well as Executive Editor of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and the Handbooks of Islamic Mysticism series associated with it (E.J. Brill, Leiden and Boston).