Najwa al-Qattan is professor emerita of Middle Eastern History, LMU. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University. She has published on the Ottoman Muslim court in Damascus and Beirut, the Jews and Christians of the Ottoman Empire, and Lebanon in the First World War. She is currently serving as the Chair of the board of trustees of the AM Qattan Foundation, a Palestinian charity that supports excellence and creativity in education, culture, and the arts in Palestine and around the region.