A former advisor for interfaith affairs to King Abdallah II of Jordan, Joseph E.B. Lumbard is Assistant Professor of Classical Islam at Brandeis University and Chair of the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Program. His specialties include Sufism, Qur’anic Studies and Islamic Philosophy.

Lumbard founded the Islamic Research Institute (IRI) to provide a forum in which Muslim scholars are able to contextualize issues pertaining to Islam and apply the traditional teachings of Islam to the exigencies of the modern world.

Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition (2004) is a product of his vision and leadership in this important area. He is also the author of Submission, Faith and Beauty: The Religion of Islam (2008). He is currently an associate editor for the Harper Collins Study Qur’an (2015).