He has served as Director of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University as well as the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
[1] After completing his high-school education in Kenya, he attended Harvard College, graduating in 1977 summa cum laude in the Comparative Study of Religion.
[2] He continued his graduate work at Harvard in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) specializing in Indo-Muslim Culture, and received his Ph.D. in 1984.
[2] He was appointed assistant professor of Indo-Muslim Culture in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, teaching Urdu-Hindi, Sindhi,[1] Gujarati, and Swahili as well as courses on various aspects of the Islamic tradition.
He has since been given tenure and appointed Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures in the Committee on the Study of Religion and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.