I wear two hats: that of a historian and that of an ethicist! My scholarship rests at the cusp of history and ethics. I specialized in Religious Ethics and Early Islamic History with a focus on the seventh- to ninth-century Muslim conquests.
When I wear the historian’s hat, I examine the patterns of conquests undertaken by Arab and Muslim armies against the Byzantine and Persian empires.
I then change hats to analyze the ethical arguments advanced by scholars in the early Muslim community to legitimize the project of empire.
In teaching undergraduates, these two hats help me move fluidly between topics. The historian’s hat is especially useful when teaching the histories of different religions — their origin stories, their gradual expansion through conversion, and the ways in which some religious communities went on to build empires marked by a distinct religious character. The ethicist’s hat, by contrast, guides discussions of the ethical arguments made by religious communities, especially when faced with crisis or ambiguity. At times these ethical arguments are ensconced in their beliefs; at other times, they reflect their lived reality.
My gift to my students is the two hats; one that makes them conscious of the past and another that sharpens the meaning of objects, rituals, and traditions. I want my students to learn about the history of the sacred but also to be ‘eagle-eyed’ in grasping the ethical and political claims made by religious communities.
By the time they graduate, my students possess a sound understanding of the category of religion and how it can help solve riddles about both the past and the future.