Maxime Rodinson (1915–2004) was a Marxist historian and sociologist who specialized in Islam and the Arab world. He was for many years a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne and, after working several years in Syria and Lebanon, supervised the Muslim section of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Among his works are Islam and Capitalism; Marxism and the Muslim World; and Cult, Ghetto, and State: The Persistence of the Jewish Question.
Anne Carter has translated various books from the French, including works by Michel Tournier, Charles Perrault, Zoé Oldenbourg, Pierre Mendès-France, Juliette Benzoni, Philippe Jullian, Pierre Goubert, and François Mauriac.
Robert Irwin is the Middle East editor of The Times Literary Supplement and the author of many books. His tenth novel, The Runes Have Been Cast, will be published in 2021.
