Editor Shari Lowin is Professor of Religious Studies and Program Director of Middle Eastern Studies at Stonehill College, Massachusetts. In 2002, Lowin completed her Ph.D in Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at University of Chicago. Her research centers on the interplay between Judaism and Islam in the early and early medieval Islamic periods, c. 800-1200 CE, focusing mainly on the development of Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives. Of her most recent publications is Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems of al-Andalus (Routledge, 2013), which examines Arabic and Hebrew eros poetry ('ishq/shirat hesheq poems) of religious scholars in 10th–13th century Muslim Spain. Other works include comparative studies of Judaism and Islam focused on the narratives of Abraham and on accounts of enemies of God in the midrash aggadah and in the hadith, including a monograph entitled The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Islamic and Jewish Exegetical Narratives (Brill, 2006).