Umar Ryad

is associate professor of Islamic Studies, University of Utrecht. Since 2008, he has been working as assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Leiden University. He studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo (BA Islamic Studies in English, 1998) and obtained his MA degree in Islamic Studies (cum laude) from Leiden University (2001), where he also received his PhD degree with the thesis Islamic Reformism and Christianity: A Critical Study of the Works of Muhammad Rashid Rida and His Associates (1898–1935) (2009). His current research focuses on the dynamics of the networks of Islamic reformist and pan- Islamist movements, Muslim polemics on Christianity, the history of Christian missions in the modern Muslim World, and transnational Islam in interwar Europe. He has recently received an ERC Starting Grant (2014–2019) for the study of Muslim Networks in Interwar Europe and European Trans-cultural History.