Rula Jurdi Abisaab is a Professor of Islamic History at McGill University with a focus on Safavid Iran and Twelver Shi'ism. Her scholarship deals with Twelver Shi'a doctrinal, legal and juristic developments during the late medieval period, and their historical contexts. Her works also cover the relationship between Islam and postcolonial Marxist thought in Lebanon and Iraq. Rula authored Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire, 1501-1736. She also co-authored with Malek Abisaab, The Shiʿites of Lebanon: Modernism, Communism, and Hizbullah’s Islamists. She co-authored with Reza Mokhtari, Kitāb Dānishnāmah-yi Shāhī bā Muqaddimah wa Ḥayāt-i ʿIlmī az Mullā Muḥammad Amīn Astarabādī (The Book of Dānishnāmah-yi Shāhī, Edited with an Introduction and Intellectual Biography of Mullā Muḥammad Amīn Astarabādī), Tehran: Institute of Islamic Studies - University of  Tehran, 2022. She is completing another monograph on early traditionism (akhbāriyya) in Iran. She published around 22 articles and book chapters covering Safavid intellectual and socio-political history, as well as, Twelver Shiʿa law and juristic thought. Her essays and articles on postcolonial Arab writers and artists complement her growing poetic and literary output. She received several honors and awards, including the Khayrallah Prize given for her novel Camera Obscura (fī ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ), 2021. She appeared as a keynote speaker and special guest at several academic conferences and literary forums.