Ömer Faruk Topal earned his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and his MA in History from Binghamton University. His research focuses on late Ottoman history, the modern Middle East, and global history. He is currently working on a study of Ottoman rule in eastern Arabia, in what is now Saudi Arabia. His articles have appeared in Die Welt des Islams, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, The International History Review, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Turkish Studies.