John Tolan is professor of history at the University of Nantes, France and a member of the Academia Europaea. He is the author of Faces of the Prophet: A History of Western Portrayals of Muhammad, in which he shows that while many Europeans, from the Middle Ages to today, had a negative, polemical perception of the Prophet Muhammad, others looked on him with fascination and admiration. Professor Tolan has authored other books, including Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination and Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter.