Professor and former chairperson of the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she has been teaching since 1970. For a number of years, she taught in the Dept. of Arabic Language and Literature at Tel Aviv University. Areas of research include: Medieval Islam, Muslim historiography, Muslim law, Arab tribal society, jihad and Islamic political thought. She holds a Ph.D. from the Dept. of Arabic Language and Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, received in 1982.