Carl Ernst

Carl Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has included premodern and contemporary Sufism, and Indo-Muslim culture. His most recent book, which won the inaugural Global Humanities Translation Prize from the Buffet Institute, is a translation from the Arabic, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr. His scholarly work is summarized by two collections of essays: It’s Not Just Academic: Essays on Sufism and Islam (2017), and Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga (2016). His other publications include How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, with Select Translations (UNC Press, 2011); Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence, 2002); Teachings of Sufism (1999); a translation of The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997); Guide to Sufism (1997); Ruzbihan Baqli: Mystical Experience and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (1996); and Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985). On the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 to 2022, he is William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He was also the founding Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies (2003-2022), and President of the American Society for the Study of Religion (2017-2020) .