Dr Colin Turner is Reader in Islamic Thought at Durham University. His PhD in Oriental Studies was completed at Durham in 1982, and he joined the university as a lecturer in 1995. Dr Turner has a wide range of research interests across the field of Islamic Studies, including Qur’anic Studies as well as Muslim theology and philosophy, Muslim political thought, Sufi spirituality and Shi’ism. Besides his numerous publications in these various areas he has made a special study of the late Ottoman-era Muslim theologian Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, who is known for devising a distinctively Islamic philosophy of science.