Joseph E. Lowry received a B.A. with honors in Germanics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in 1985 and earned J.D. and A.M. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and 1991. After practicing law in Washington, D.C. at Patton Boggs, LLP, he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, where he is currently Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of Early Islamic Legal Theory: The Risala of Muhammad bin Idris al-Shafiʿi (Brill, 2007), co-author of Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, Dwight Reynolds, ed. (California, 2001), and co-editor of Law and EduJoseph E. Lowry received a B.A. with honors in Germanics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in 1985 and earned J.D. and A.M. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and 1991. After practicing law in Washington, D.C. at Patton Boggs, LLP, he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, where he is currently Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of Early Islamic Legal Theory: The Risala of Muhammad bin Idris al-Shafiʿi (Brill, 2007), co-author of Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, Dwight Reynolds, ed. (California, 2001), and co-editor of Law and Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of George Makdisi (Gibb Trust, 2004) with Devin J. Stewart and Shawkat M. Toorawa, and of Essays in Arabic Literary Biography II: 1350-1850 (Harrassowitz, 2009) with Devin J. Stewart. He has written articles on the Qurʾan, early Islamic legal thought, Islamic legal theory, and medieval and modern Arabic literature....more