CONTRIBUTOR:

David Powers

AFFILIATION:

TITLE:

Professor

DEPARTMENT:

Near Eastern Studies

INSTITUTION:

Cornell University

BIOGRAPHY:

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, David S. Powers received his B.A. from Yale (1973) and Ph.D. from Princeton (1979). Since 1979, he has been teaching at Cornell University, where his courses deal with Islamic civilization, Islamic history and law, and classical Arabic texts. His research focuses on Muhammad and the rise of Islam; and the history of Islamic law and its application in Muslim societies. Powers is the author of Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance (California, 1986), Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500 (Cambridge, 2002), Muhammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (Pennsylvania, 2009), and Zayd (Pennsylvania, 2014). He has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Islamic Law and Society since its founding in 1994.