Dr. Paul Cobb

Biography

Paul M. Cobb is the Edmund J. Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. A social cultural historian specializing in the pre-modern Islamic world, he has been teaching at Penn since 2008. His research interests encompass animal studies, Arabic historiography, Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations, Crusades studies, and the history of travel and exploration. Cobb is a recognized authority on the medieval Crusades in an Islamic context, authoring several significant works. His publications include 'White Banners: Contention in ‘Abbasid Syria, 750-880' (SUNY Press, 2001), 'Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet of the Age of Crusades' (Oneworld, 2005), 'Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades', a translation of the memoirs of Usama ibn Munqidh (Penguin Classics, 2008), and 'Race and Paradise: Islamic History and the Crusades' (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has also edited and co-edited several volumes on Islamic history and is currently working on the edition and translation of a 14th-century Arabic manual on hunting and assessments of historical works by Philip K. Hitti. Cobb is actively involved in mentoring graduate students interested in medieval Islamic history and historiography, particularly in the areas of animal studies and travel geography.

Research Interests

Courses