Mohamed Haji Mukhtar

Mohamed Haji Mukhtar was born in Somalia and raised bilingual in Somali and Arabic, later becoming fluent in English and Italian. He earned his PhD at Al-Azhar University, the Islamic world’s oldest school of Islamic studies. He has taught at the Somali National University, the National University of Malaysia, and is currently a Professor at Savannah State University.

Dr. Mukhtar is a two-time Fulbright-Hays scholar and has held fellowships from the Istituto Italiano per l’Africa and the Arab League. Throughout the past decade, he has returned frequently to Somalia for field research and has been an active contributor to Somali causes. He has served as the chairperson of the Somali Committee for Peace and Reconciliation.

In addition to his academic work, he has been a producer and correspondent for the BBC World Service and is the editor of the newsletter Demenedung. His scholarship is noted for its attempt at objectivity despite the "extremely difficult conditions" of writing about a nation in collapse. He has published extensively on Somali historiography and the spread of Islam.