Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian. In 2012 - 2013, he was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon. His articles on Middle East affairs have appeared in a variety of newspapers, including al-Ahram Weekly, al-Hayat, Gulf News, The Daily Star, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and Asia Times. He is a blogger with The Huffington Post and an online panelist with The Washington Post.
'Sami Moubayed has written a must-read book. As a Syrian historian, Moubayed astutely explores the rise of the Islamic State first by tracking the historical origins of its ideology. He then smoothly takes the reader to the vivid details of life on the ground to explain how ISIS grew and established its so-called state. It is a perfect way to elucidate this complex phenomenon.' - Hassan Hassan, author of ISIS: Inside the New Army of Terror; 'Sami Moubayed's new book on ISIS is a great read. It is the best introduction to ISIS so far. He neither looses the reader in a cascade of foreign names nor overwhelms them with detail. What Moubayed does do with consummate skill is provide essential background and history to understand why Syria fell apart and where ISIS came from. Sami is the premier Syrian historian of his generation writing in English. He comes from an illustrious Damascene Sunni family and continues to live much of the year in Damascus, which gives him a unique and valuable perspective on events unfolding in his region.' - Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, author of Syria Comment and past President of the Syrian Studies Association