William A. Graham (Islamic studies scholar)

William Albert Graham Jr. (born 1943) is an American scholar of Islamic studies and the history of religion, and a longtime member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.[1] He also served for ten years as the Dean of Harvard Divinity School.[2]  He currently holds the title of Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, emeritus, and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, emeritus. Graham's scholarship has focused on early Islamic religious history, scripture, and comparative studies in religion, with particular attention to oral aspects of written textual traditions.[3]

Biography

Graham was born August 16, 1943,[4] in Raleigh, North Carolina and raised in Chapel Hill, NC.[5] He earned his B.A. (1966) summa cum laude in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) from Harvard University in the History of Religion specializing in Islamic Studies. Graham joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard in 1973, and became professor of the history of religion and Islamic studies in 1985.[6] He has held Guggenheim and Alexander von Humboldt fellowships and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the American Philosophical Society.[7]

Career

Graham joined the Harvard faculty in 1973 and advanced through the professorial ranks within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.[3] In 1985, he was named Professor of the History of Religion and Islamic Studies. In 2001, he was appointed Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of the History of Religion.[6]  In 2002 he was seconded to the Harvard Divinity School and joined its faculty as Dean and John Lord O'Brien Professor of Divinity, a position he held for ten years.[8]

Graham has been recognized with a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, and the Award for Excellence in Research in Islamic History and Culture from the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (Istanbul) in 2000.[9]

In addition to his deanship, Graham has held numerous administrative positions at Harvard, including Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (1990–1996), Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (1997–2002), and Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion (1987–1990).[10] He also served as Chair of the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion for the United States and Canada.[11]

Harvard Divinity School

Graham was appointed Acting Dean of Harvard Divinity School in January 2002 and formally became Dean and John Lord O'Brien Professor of Divinity six months later following a national search.[12] During his decade of leadership, he expanded the faculty and strengthened programs in multiple religious traditions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.[10]

Graham stepped down as Dean at the end of the 2011–2012 academic year to return to fulltime teaching as the Albertson Professor after a year of academic leave. In recognition of his contributions, he was named also Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor.[13]

Scholarly work and research

His scholarly contributions include research on the Qur'an and its role as scripture, prophetic traditions, and comparative issues in Islamic, Indian, Buddhist, and Christian history.[14]

Notable publications include Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (1977), which shared the 1978 History of Religions Book Prize from the American Council of Learned Societies,[15] and Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (1987), which has been widely cited across various fields of religious studies.[16] He is also a co-author of the college textbook The Heritage of World Civilizations, now in its tenth edition, and co-editor of Islamfiche: Readings from Islamic Primary Sources.[17]

In 2022, a festschrift titled Non sola scriptura: Essays on the Qur'an and Islam in Honour of William A. Graham was published by Routledge, featuring contributions by colleagues and former students. The volume explores themes central to Graham’s work, such as Islamic history and scripture, oral and textual traditions, and the academic study of religion.[14]

Selected publications

  • Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (1977)
  • Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (1987)
  • Three Faiths, One God (2002)
  • Islamic and Comparative Religious Studies (2010)
  • The Heritage of World Civilizations (1986ff.; 10th ed., 2015)

References

  1. ^ gazetteimport (2001-12-13). "President Summers Appoints William A. Graham Acting Dean of the Harvard Divinity School". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  2. ^ "Harvard Divinity dean to deliver Baccalaureate address". Lehigh University. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  3. ^ a b "William Graham advocates for Islamic studies across faculties". timeline.islamicstudies.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  4. ^ "Graham, William A. (William Albert), 1943-". from Library of Congress Name Authority File.
  5. ^ "William A. Graham (CV)" (PDF).
  6. ^ a b "William A. Graham Named Dean of Harvard Divinity School". Harvard Divinity School. August 15, 2002. Archived from the original on May 17, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  7. ^ "Election of New Members at the 2018 Spring Meeting".
  8. ^ Kanani, Rahim (2010-11-22). "An In-Depth Interview with William Graham, Dean of Harvard Divinity School and Professor of Middle Eastern Studies". Middle East Forum. Archived from the original on 2024-12-11. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  9. ^ "William A. Graham". Fons Vitae Publishing. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dean2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Rethinking the Divinity School | Harvard Magazine". www.harvardmagazine.com. 2002-11-01. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  13. ^ "William A. Graham to step down as Harvard Divinity School dean in June 2012 | Harvard Magazine". www.harvardmagazine.com. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  14. ^ a b Non sola scriptura: essays on the Qur'an and Islam in honour of William A. Graham. Routledge studies in the Qur'ān. London: Routledge. 2022. ISBN 978-1-032-17196-8.
  15. ^ Wansbrough, J. (February 1979). "William A. Graham: Divine word and prophetic word in early Islam: a reconsideration of the sources, with special reference to the divine saying or hadîth qudsî. (Religion and Society, 7.) xvii, 266 pp. The Hague, Paris: Mouton, [1977]. DM68". Bulletin of SOAS. 42 (1): 145–145. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00108584. ISSN 0041-977X.
  16. ^ Brueggemann, Walter (1989-07-01). "Book Review: Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion". Missiology. 17 (3): 360–361. doi:10.1177/009182968901700318. ISSN 0091-8296.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :02 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[*https://nelc.fas.harvard.edu/people/william-graham [1]

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