Zvi Ben-Dor Benite studied in Jerusalem, Jinan, and the Los Angeles. He is the author of two books, The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China, and The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History. He is currently working on two books, one entitled Crescent China: Islam and the Nation after Empire and the other An Arab Jew in Rome: A Renaissance Tale of Expansion and Espionage. He teaches in the department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and the department of History at New York University, where he is Associate Professor.