Professor John Tolan is a leading expert in medieval European anti-Muslim polemics and in the history of European perceptions of Islam. He is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nantes and a member of the Academia Europæa. He is co-director of the Institute for Religious Pluralism and Atheism (IPRA) and coordinated the European research programme Religion and Law in Medieval Christian and Muslim Societies (RELMIN) (ERC Advanced Grant) on the legal status of religious minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean area (5th–15th centuries). Professor Tolan has published more than 55 articles in international journals and collected works and author of 'Latin Europe and the Arab world in the middle ages: Cultures in conflict and convergence' and 'Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages'. His latest book 'Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today' is available from Princeton University Press.
