Sumaiya Hamdani is an associate professor of Islamic, Middle East, and world history at George Mason University. She received her Ph.D. in Islamic History from the Near East Studies Department at Princeton University, and her publications Between Revolution and State: the Construction of Fatimid Legitimacy (2006), and several articles and reviews on topics related to Islamic history, Shiism, and the South Asian Muslim experience. Her teaching regularly includes courses on Women and Gender in Islam, offered through both the History Dept. as well as the Women and Gender Studies program at George Mason University.