Ron Shaham (Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1992; post-doc at Cornell University on a Fulbright scholarship, 1993-1994) is an associate professorat the Hebrew University. He was a visiting scholar at Princeton University (1999-2000) and at the University of Washington in Seattle (2006-2007). He served as the Director of the Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies (2008-2010) and as the Chair of the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University (2012-2015).

Prof. Shaham’s main fields of research are family law reform and its application in the shariʿa courts (especially in Egypt); the legal status of non-Muslims in modern Islamic societies; expert witnesses at the shariʿa courts; the modern discourse on the renewal of Islamic law. His main publications are: Family and the Courts in Modern Egypt (Brill, 1997); (editor); Law, Custom and Statute in the Muslim World: Studies in Honor of Aharon Layish (Brill, 2007); The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law (University of Chicago Press, 2010) . He is currently working on a book-length study of the juristic theory and legal opinions of Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.