Joseph E.B. Lumbard (born 1969) is an American Muslim scholar of Islamic studies and associate professor of Quranic studies at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is the author, editor, and translator of several scholarly books and many articles on Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and Quranic studies.

Biography

Born and raised in Washington D.C., Lumbard was brought up within the Episcopal Church, serving as an altar boy. In his teenage years he lost interest and he was introduced to Islam when a sophomore at George Washington University. He converted to Islam a year and a half later. "I realized that everything that I had been searching for within Christianity was also available within Islam...and that I would be following the message of Jesus just as fully within the Islamic tradition." He received a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Islamic Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in Religious Studies and a B.A. from the George Washington University. In order to complement his Western university training, he studied Qur´an, Hadith, Sufism, and Islamic philosophy with traditional teachers in Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, and Iran. Lumbard began his teaching career at the American University in Cairo (2002-2005) after receiving a PhD in Islamic studies from Yale University. After serving as an advisor for interfaith affairs to King Abdullah II of Jordan, he became the director of the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Program at Brandeis University. He has also served as an assistant professor of Arabic and Translation Studies at the American University of Sharjah. Lumbard has lectured in academic arenas around the world, participated in inter-faith dialogues, and appeared on several radio and television programs. He is also the founder and first director of the Islamic Research Institute.