Stephen Cory (PhD in Islamic History, UCSB, 2002) teaches in the History and Religious Studies Departments at Cleveland State University, specializing in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa during the late medieval/early modern period. His research is on the use of religious imagery for political legitimization during this period. Dr. Cory has conducted research in Morocco and Spain (with funding from AIMS, Fulbright and Fulbright Hays fellowships) and has presented his research at a number of scholarly meetings, including the Middle East Studies Association and the World Congress of Middle East Studies. His book, Reviving the Islamic Caliphate in Early Modern Morocco (Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2013) examines an attempt by a sixteenth century Moroccan monarch, Ahmad al-Mansur, to establish a Western caliphate that would compete for Islamic supremacy with the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Cory has also published several articles on the career of al-Mansur, including “The Forgotten Palace: Morocco’s al-Badi` as a Symbol of Caliphal Splendor,” “The Man Who Would Be Caliph: A Sixteenth Century Sultan’s Bid for an African Empire,” “Language of Power: The use of literary Arabic as political propaganda in early modern Morocco,” as well as an article comparing al-Mansur’s sultanate with a Moroccan sultan from the Marinid dynasty, entitled “Honoring the Prophet’s Family: A Comparison of Approaches to Political Legitimacy between Abu al-Hasan `Ali al-Marini and Ahmad al-Mansur al-Sa`di.” Dr. Cory’s publications also include two articles dealing with broader themes on Moroccan history, including “Sharifian Rule in Morocco: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries” and “Breaking the Khaldunian cycle? The rise of sharifianism as the basis for political legitimacy in early modern Morocco.”