Alexander Wain

Alexander Wain is both editor of the Islam section of the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology and a lecturer in the Graduate School of the University of St Andrews. A specialist in the eastern Islamic world, his primary research interests lie in the history and literary traditions of the Malay Muslim world (modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, southern Philippines, and Singapore), with an ancillary focus on China’s hui-hui Muslim ethnic grouping.

His forthcoming monograph, The Islamization of the Malay World (Brill), explores the complex, multivalent commercial, intellectual, and cultural networks that, stretching across the Indian Ocean towards China, allowed Muslims of Arab, Persian, Indian, and Chinese origin to initiate a religious revolution that continues to define the Malay and Javanese worlds today.

His ongoing research explores the history of Islamic thought (broadly conceived) within the Malay world, from the 15th century down to the present. From 2015 to 2021, Dr Wain lived in Kuala Lumpur, where he worked as a Research Fellow at IAIS Malaysia. Previously, he has taught at Liverpool John Moores University (2007-2010) and the University of Edinburgh (2023-2024).