John Tolan is a his­to­ri­an inter­est­ed in the entan­gled lives of Jews, Chris­tians and Mus­lims in the Mid­dle Ages and beyond. He is author of numer­ous arti­cles and books, includ­ing Sara­cens (2002), Saint Fran­cis and the Sul­tan (2009), and Faces of Muham­mad: West­ern Per­cep­tions of the Prophet of Islam (2019).