Julian Raymond Dennis Cobbing (born June 1944, London) is an English historian, and professor of History at Rhodes University (Grahamstown, South Africa), known best for his controversial and groundbreaking research into Zulu culture of the early 19th century.
He is regarded as the first historian to attempt to discredit conventional historical beliefs about the 'Mfecane' - a period of wars during the 1820s and 1830s that resulted in the emergence of the Zulu Kingdom.
Often now referred to as the "Cobbing controversy", historians are still very much divided on the issue of the emergence of the Zulu nation and the accuracy of conventional accounts of the Mfecane.
He currently lives in Grahamstown, South Africa, and recently retired from lecturing in history at Rhodes University, where his course "The Origins of the Modern World Crisis" was very popular.
Cobbing's current work focuses on a variety of subjects including the history of Homo sapiens as a species and the modern world crisis.