Accessing Muslim Lives is about improving the accessibility of autobiographical and travel writings from Muslim contexts through translation and digitisation so that they may be better used for teaching and learning, particularly in higher education.  Through this internet-based collection of primary source extracts, students, practitioners and the general public alike are given access to the wide array of Muslim lives – both male and female, historical and contemporary – represented in these materials.  The authors range from travelers, scholars, saints and socio-religious reformers to princes, bureaucrats, nationalists, educators, writers and actors. The project thus intends to complicate stereotypical depictions of Muslims and Islam so widespread in the current political climate.  Now based at Northwestern University and the University of Sheffield, Accessing Muslim Lives is sponsored by the Islamic Studies Network of the Higher Education Academy.  Further additions were funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It is run by Daniel Majchrowicz (Northwestern University), Siobhan Lambert-Hurley (University of Sheffield), and Marilyn Booth (University of Oxford)  in conjunction with the international research network, Women’s Autobiography in Islamic Societies.

We welcome new contributions! Do you have an autobiographical extract or travel account from a Muslim-majority context (of any time period) that you would like to add to this collection? If so, please contact us.