Marcia K. Hermansen, Ph.D. (1982) in Islamic Studies, University of Chicago, is Professor in the Theology department at Loyola University in Chicago. She has published numerous articles and books on Islamic thought, Sufism, Islam and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims in North America, Women in Islam, and other topics.

This important and comprehensive work of 18th-century Islamic religious thought written in Arabic by a pre-eminent South Asian scholar provides an extensive and detailed picture of Muslim theology and interpretive strategies on the eve of the modern period.