Mark LeVine is among the most prominent scholars and commentators of the new generation of historians and analysts of the modern Middle East and Islam. He has spent over fifteen years living, researching, reporting from and performing in the region, including Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, the Persian Gulf and Morocco.

Working in Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Persian, as well as Italian, French and German, he has interviewed senior international political figures, reported from Beirut’s green line, taught Qur’an to Muslim Brothers, performed from Woodstock to Paris to Damascus Gate, lived next door to Hamas mosques, stood against bulldozers, dodged terrorist bombs, and uncovered damning files in dusty archives. He knows the history, politics, religions–and most important, the peoples–of the region as a friend, but with a highly critical eye.