Poet and Businessman

Leif Stenberg is the Dean of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). He is also a professor at AKU-ISMC and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. From 2007 to 2017, he was the founding Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, Sweden. Between 2010 and 2019, Professor Stenberg was the president of the Nordic Society of Middle Eastern Studies. Among his publications are The Islamization of Science. Four Muslim Positions Making an Islamic Modernity, 1996, Schaebler & Leif Stenberg (eds.), Globalization and Muslim World: Culture, Religion, and Modernity, 2004, Hooglund, Eric & Leif Stenberg (eds), Navigating Contemporary Iran. Challenging Economic, Social and Political Perceptions, 2012, Salamandra, Christa & Leif Stenberg (eds), Syria from Reform to Revolt Vol. II: Culture, Society and Religion, 2015, and Leif Stenberg and Philip Wood (eds), What is Islamic Studies? European and North American Approaches to a Contested Field, 2022.

‘Poet and Businessman provides a wonderful insight into the tremendous change that has gripped the Gulf region, and Kuwait in particular, over the past 70 years. The book is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the political and social changes in a country that only became independent in 1961. A significant addition to the existing literature.’ Dr Christian Koch, Director of Research, Gulf Research Center; ‘Stenberg offers an illuminating lens on the history of modern Kuwait in the life of the founder of one of the country’s most successful and influential family-owned holding companies. A resourceful entrepreneur and a keen advocate of Arabic poetry and culture, al-Babtain is older than Kuwait itself and his story exemplifies the role his generation of business magnates and philanthropists have had on the country’s path to a national identity and economic prosperity.’ Lisa Anderson, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; ‘This is an engaging and illuminating work on a period of history in the Gulf region that remains overlooked. A key aspect of Stenberg’s discussion is an analysis of Kuwait’s post-invasion transformations, shedding light on the hopes and struggles of its leadership and its people, citizens and residents, women and men. Al-Babtain’s career captures nuances of, and relationships between,Islam, Arabism, capitalism and culture, both state and popular.’ Dr Amal Ghazal, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Simon Fraser University