Robert Irwin

Robert Irwin read modern history at Oxford and taught medieval history at the University of St Andrews. He has taught Arabic and Middle Eastern history at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. He is the director of a small publishing company.

Robert Irwin is the author of The Middle East in the Middle Ages, The Arabian Nights: A Companion (Penguin, 1994) and Islamic Art (Laurence King, 1997) and numerous other specialised studies of Middle Eastern politics, art and mysticism. His novels include The Limits of Vision (Penguin, 1986), The Arabian Nightmare (Penguin, 1988), The Mysteries of Algiers (Penguin, 1989), Exquisite Corpse (Dedalus, 1995) and Satan Wants Me (Dedalus, 1999). His latest book is For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies.