Juan Cole

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Conflict in Mecca: The Prophet Muhammad and Soft Power

I believe that the earliest source we have for the life of the Prophet is the Quran itself. And I believe the Quran is early.

He brought me first into being, to my alarm./ This life increased nothing but my bewilderment

Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273) has sometimes been called “the Shakespeare of the East.” The comparison is just

And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d- “I came like Water, and like Wind I go.

Mongols of the Golden Horde catapulted the cadavers of plague victims over the wall of the city of Caffa

2024 was the hottest year on record in the Middle East, around 1º Celsius (1.8º F.) hotter than the average for 1990-2020

“RTÉ remains deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza during the conflict and the continued denial of access

The star-studded list of signatories includes Margaret Atwood of “The Handmaid’s Tale” fame; Mark Ruffalo a.k.a. the Incredible Hulk

Ember finds that solar power-generating capacity grew Q1-Q3 ’25 by an unprecedented 31% over the same three quarters in 2024