He returned to Chicago and in 1997 he received his PhD in Islamic history from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
His first book, White Banners: Contention in 'Abbasid Syria, 750–880 (2001), was one of the first attempts at providing a provincial history of early Islam, and to mine the vast amount of information on early Islam to be found in medieval local histories such as Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh Madinat Dimashq.
[3] His interest in the history of Syria led him to the life and times of the adventurer and poet Usama ibn Munqidh (d. 1188).
This was followed (in 2008) with a translation of Usama's famous "memoirs" or Kitab al-I'tibar and other autobiographical writings such as The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades.
[4] Cobb has been awarded Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the Fulbright Program, and the Guggenheim Foundation among others.