Iqbal Akhtar, PhD, is an assistant professor with a dual appointment in the Departments of Religious Studies and Politics & International Relations in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. He completed his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh’s New College School of Divinity. Dr Akhtar teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including on Islamic Mysticism (Sufism). His current work explores the origin of the Khōjā peoples in the subcontinent through extant oral traditions known as the kahaṇī in Sindhi, Gujarati, and Hindustani.