Born in London, Bernard Lewis grew up in England. In 1974 he immigrated to the United States and eight years later became a U.S. citizen. A distinguished scholar of Middle Eastern history and a prolific writer, his education includes a diplome des etudes semitiques from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. from the University of London, where he taught for 25 years before coming to Princeton in 1974. Most recently he has served as professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. As a visiting professor, he lectured at a number of notable universities in Europe and the United States.