John Tolan
Born in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) in 1959, John Tolan is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at Nantes Université, affiliated with the Centre de recherches en histoire internationale et atlantique (CRHIA, EA 1163) and the Maison des sciences de l’homme Ange-Guépin, which he has directed. Educated at Yale (BA in Classics, 1981), he earned his PhD in History from the University of Chicago (1990) and his HDR at EHESS (2001). He directed the ERC Advanced Grant programme RELMIN (“Legal Status of Religious Minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean World, 5th-15th centuries”, 2010-2015) and currently co-directs the ERC Synergy programme EuQu — The European Qur’an. An elected member of the Academia Europaea and of the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona, his work covers the intellectual and cultural history of the Mediterranean world, Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations in the Middle Ages, the figure of Muhammad in medieval Latin literature, and the legal status of religious minorities. His publications include Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (Columbia UP, 2002), Saint Francis and the Sultan (OUP, 2009), Faces of Muhammad (Princeton UP, 2019), England’s Jews (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton UP, 2025), and he co-edited with Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi Le Mahomet des historiens (Cerf, 2025).
Resources of this researcher
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videos
“Le Mahomet des historiens”, by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi and John Tolan
- Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
- John Tolan
Two-voice lecture by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (Directeur d’études at EPHE-PSL, Chair of “Exegesis and Theology of Shi’i Islam”) and John Tolan (Professor Emeritus of Medieva...
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publication
Muhammad according to Historians
- Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
- John Tolan
Co-edited by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (Directeur d’études at EPHE-PSL, Chair of “Exegesis and Theology of Shi’i Islam”) and John Tolan (Professor Emeritus of Medieval Histor...
Resources related to
History
publication
The Recognition of a Hummingbird. Essays on Interreligious Dialogue and Missionary Work (2007-2025)
- Rémi Caucanas
Published in May 2026 by PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome), this collection brings together the essays of Rémi Caucanas on interreligious dialogue and missionary wor...
videos
From Lavigerie to PISAI: The Institutional History of the Missionaries of Africa’s Engagement with Islam
Delivered on 21 May 2026 at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, this lecture opens the series of conferences marking the institute's centenary (1926-2026). Fr. ...
publication
Maurice Borrmans and the Crisis of Christian-Muslim Dialogue. Islamic studies in Question?
- Florence Javel
In 2025-2026, we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and of the declaration Nostra aetate (28 October 1965). One century earlier, in October 1925, Maurice Borrmans was born ...
videos
Muhammad in Modern Art, by Alice Bombardier
- Alice Bombardier
Lecture given by Alice Bombardier (Professeure agrégée at Sorbonne Université) as part of the Théologies en dialogue Chair of the Faculty of Theology at UCLy, in Lyon, on 25 March 2026. Working ag...
publication
Islam and Muslims. Doctrines, Schools of Thought, and Current Trends
- Michel Younès
Publication date: April 16, 2026. Islam, as a historical, religious, and civilizational reality, is difficult to define. It can be perceived as a form of political governance, an expression of fait...
publication
Canon and Censorship in Islamic Intellectual History
- Amir Dziri
Published in De Gruyter’s series “Islam: Thought, Culture, and Society” (vol. 16, 2026), this collective volume is edited by Mohammad Gharaibeh and Bacem Dziri (Humboldt University of Berlin)...
videos
Maurice Borrmans (1925-2017), an Islamologist Defending Christian-Muslim Dialogue
- Florence Javel
On 19 February 2026, in the Maurice Borrmans Library of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, Florence Javel, who holds a PhD in theology from the Catholic Univer...
videos
Landscape and architecture as occasions of contemplation and of interreligious dialogue in the travel narratives of the Sufi ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...