Dr Philip Wood is a historian of the medieval Middle East and the caliphate and he holds an Associate Professorship at Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. He has a doctorate from Oxford and taught at Cambridge and SOAS. He also studied Arabic and Syriac in Damascus. He is currently researching the reception and teaching of early Islamic history in contemporary Britain. He has published with Open Democracy, Integration Hub, REOnline and politics.co.uk. Twitter @DrPhilipWood.