Dr Richard Todd

• DPhil in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
• MSt in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
• BA (Hons) in Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Durham University

Since completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford, Richard Todd has taught classical Arabic literature and Islamic cultural and intellectual history at Durham University, the American University of Sharjah, and the University of Edinburgh. In 2017 he joined the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham, where he teaches Islamic philosophy. He is the author of The Sufi Doctrine of Man: Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi's Metaphysical Anthropology (Brill 2014) and co-edits the Taylor & Francis journal Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

Undergraduate

• Introduction to Islam
• Introduction to Qur’anic and Classical Arabic
• Sufism: Belief and Practice
• Dissertation Preparation

Postgraduate

• Islamic Philosophy
• Approaches to Studying Islam

Contributions to team-taught modules

• Introduction to the History of Christianity
• Religion and the Arts
• Dharmic Religions and Traditions
• Introduction to the Study of Religion

• Haya Alqasem, “Rereading the Qur’an: the reformist hermeneutics of Muhammad Shahrur and ‘Adnan al-Rifa’i”
• Muhammad Yasir Al-Hanafi, "Imam al-Sanusi on the Ash'ari doctrine of God's transcendence"
• Al Muatasim Al Maawali, "A juristic and codicological study of the narration of la qirad illa bi-'ayn"
• Doaa Baumi, “Muslim perceptions of biblical lore narratives (7th-14th centuries)”
• Rawdah Gawaher, "From duality of revelation to 'by scripture alone': a comparative study of the crisis of religious authority between Protestantism and modern Islam"
• Neelam Hussain, “Manuscripts and their readers: the Sirr al-asrar and the career of a pseudo-Aristotelian treatise”
• Shazad Khan, “Qasim Nanotvi’s Maturidi theology”
• Nadir Mohammad, “The theological poetry of Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi”
• Azra Omerbegovic, “Bosnevi’s commentary on the Fusus al-hikam”
• Muhammet Saygi, “Nasafi and Aquinas on the concept of faith”
• Sainulabdeen Thameem, “The portrayal of Sri Lanka (Sarandib) in medieval Arabic travel and geographical texts (9th-15th centuries)"

Find out more - our PhD Theology and Religion  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

• Sufism, especially the school of Ibn 'Arabi, and its historical interaction with Avicennian philosophy
• Arabic alchemy 
• Islamic philosophy, especially metaphysics and the philosophy of time
• Islamic theology
• Esoteric commentaries on the Qur'an
• Classical Arabic poetry
• Christian-Muslim Relations
• The Mingana collection of Arabic Islamic manuscripts

• Editor, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
• Member of British Association of Islamic Studies