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Mustafa Shah is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies in the Near and Middle East Department, SOAS. His principal research and teaching interests include early Arabic linguistic thought; theology and jurisprudence; and Qur’anic hermeneutics and exegesis. He has recently edited a four-volume collection of published articles on Qur’anic commentary entitled Tafsir: Interpreting the Qur’an(Routledge, 2013) and a similar work devoted to the Prophetic traditions, The Hadith (Routledge, 2010). Previously, he has published articles on the subject of Qur’anic readings, the early Arabic linguistic tradition, and aspects of theological thought. More recently, as well as contributing to various projects such as the Encyclopaedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics (E.J. Brill) and theOxford Bibliographies Online: Arabic and Islam: An annotated introduction and bibliography (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Adbul Hakim al-Matroudi is a visiting professor of Arabic in the Near and Middle East Department at SOAS. His research interests include classical jurisprudence and the Hanbalite school of law; and he takes an active interest in the field of translation and legal theory. He has published extensively in the field of Islamic law including works in Arabic and English; among these are a recent edition of Jamal al-Din al-Asnawi’s Tiraz al-Mahafil Maktabat al-Rushd, (Riyadh 2004). He has recently edited a critical edition of al-Jira’i famous legal text entitled Hilyat al-tiraz fi hal masail al-alghaz (Maktabat al-Rushd, Riyadh, 2007). Professor Matroudi has published in the field of Prophetic traditions, translating On Schacht’s Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence by Professor M. Mustafa Al-Azami. (King Saud University, 2006). And most significantly he is the author of the influential study of Ibn Taymiyya entitled The Hanbali School of Law and Ibn Taymiyyah: Conflict or Conciliation, (Routledge, London, 2006), which was recently issued in paperback in 2010.