John Esposito transformed how the West understood Islam

John L. Esposito, a prominent scholar of Islam at Georgetown University, passed away on July 15, 2026, due to complications from heart surgery. He published more than 55 books and reshaped the study of Islam and Islam-West relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 9/11 attacks. Born to a working-class Italian-American family in Brooklyn, he initially pursued the priesthood before earning a doctorate in religious studies under Ismail al-Faruqi at Temple University. In 1974, there was only one advertised academic position in Islamic studies in the United States.