Rudolph T. Ware III is professor of history at University of California, Santa Barbara and a specialist in pre-modern West African history. He formerly taught at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. His research interests include Islam, popular religious culture, and race. His work aims to confront and dispel Western misconceptions about Islam. Ware received his Ph.D. in history in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Walking Quran, Islam in West Africa and of Jihad of the Pen: The Sufi Literature of West Africa.