When Prof Joel Hayward received an email telling him that he had been included in a publication featuring the world's 500 most influential Muslims he, modestly, thought someone was joking.
"I was shocked to find, in fact, that it was me and that people do think that I somehow am making a difference," he said.
"I’m a historian and we don’t imagine that people read our books and that our books make a difference. To have been put in such an illustrious group of people is beyond imagination."
Islam transcends race and ethnicity — it binds us together regardless of our backgrounds and socioeconomic status
Prof Joel Hayward
The recent announcement that this 58-year-old researcher at the Rabdan Academy in Abu Dhabi has been included in the 2023 edition of The Muslim 500 should, however, not come as a surprise.
The British-New Zealander, a distinguished historian of warfare and military strategy, became a Muslim in the early 2000s and is now recognised as an authority on Islamic history.
One of his most recent books, The Leadership of Muhammad: A Historical Reconstruction, was chosen as the Best International Non-Fiction Book at last year's Sharjah International Book Awards.
Prof Hayward has found the life of the Prophet to be "immensely stimulating and very impressive".
Born in New Zealand to parents of British extraction, Prof Hayward developed an interest in warfare in part because his father was a soldier.
His interest also stemmed from a feeling that warfare was when "people are tested to the most extreme levels and … the quality of their character emerges".
"People become very frightened, they become very emotional, they become very angry. Also, they become very brave," he said.
"Those esteemed qualities — self-sacrifice, comradeship, courage — that we all place importance on are demonstrated best, I think, during wartime."
At the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, he completed a doctorate on the Luftwaffe’s operations during the Second World War and, after a number of years working as a lecturer in the country where he was born, moved to the UK
There he continued to lecture, including at a military academy, and to write books on military history.
Following the 9/11 attacks, Prof Hayward became interested in Islam when a senior military officer suggested to him that there was a militarism to the religion.
He took evening classes in Arabic so that he could read the Quran in its original language and, nearly two decades ago, became a Muslim himself.
In the early 2010s, Prof Hayward moved to the UAE, working first at Khalifa University, then the National Defence College and now the Rabdan Academy, a government security-oriented academic institution.
There he mostly teaches young Emiratis, who he says are enthusiastic to learn.
The Abu Dhabi resident spends between three and five hours a day reading and from Saturday to Thursday writes 500 words a day.
His background in the western source-critical historical method, in which scholars interrogate sources to understand their motivations rather than simply accept them at face value, coupled with his expertise in Islam, gives him a perspective few other historians share and one that seems to resonate with readers.
Prof Hayward has written a number of books on Islamic history, the latest of which is The Warrior Prophet: Muhammed and War. Running to nearly 500 pages, it has taken Prof Hayward about a decade of on-and-off work to complete.
Now he has turned his focus to the Prophet’s diplomacy. Prof Hayward said the Prophet had great strengths as a diplomat and insights into what others thought.
"When you know what people want, your competitors in other tribes, it’s far easier to negotiate than if you don’t know what they want," Prof Hayward said.
"He understood ego, he understood greed, he understood ambition — all those things that his competitors seemed to have been motivated by — and found ways to work with those traits to get the best out of people and to bring people together who might not ordinarily have wanted to come together."
Prof Hayward has found Islam to be a unifying force also in the present day because being a Muslim has given him a strong sense of kinship with his co-religionists, even though he is of a very different background to many of them.
"That’s the thing about Islam — it transcends race, it transcends ethnicity, it binds us all together regardless of our backgrounds, and also regardless of our socioeconomic status," he said.
"You go to the mosque and you pray alongside people who might be cleaners or construction workers or they might be CEOs. They might even come from one of the royal families.
"Everybody just prays together in a line. There’s no sense that status plays a role in that. In some ways that’s one of the attractions."
He feels lucky to be living in the UAE, which he describes as a Muslim country "that has so easily and fully embraced modernity and done so with success".
"I have been here a decade and I call the UAE home. I wish I could stay here forever. I can’t imagine being anywhere else," he said.
Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women - in pictures
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Get Out
Director: Jordan Peele
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford
Four stars
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
SPECS
Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman
Engine: two-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 306hp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: JCW Clubman, Dh220,500; JCW Countryman, Dh225,500
Company%20profile
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Film: In Syria
Dir: Philippe Van Leeuw
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bo Abboud, Mohsen Abbas and Juliette Navis
Verdict: Four stars
India team for Sri Lanka series
Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubhman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Sourabh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
T20 squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Avesh Khan
more from Janine di Giovanni
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
THE SPECS
Jaguar F-Pace SVR
Engine: 5-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 680Nm
Price: Dh465,071
AGL AWARDS
Golden Ball - best Emirati player: Khalfan Mubarak (Al Jazira)
Golden Ball - best foreign player: Igor Coronado (Sharjah)
Golden Glove - best goalkeeper: Adel Al Hosani (Sharjah)
Best Coach - the leader: Abdulaziz Al Anbari (Sharjah)
Fans' Player of the Year: Driss Fetouhi (Dibba)
Golden Boy - best young player: Ali Saleh (Al Wasl)
Best Fans of the Year: Sharjah
Goal of the Year: Michael Ortega (Baniyas)
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
U19 World Cup in South Africa
Group A: India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Group B: Australia, England, Nigeria, West Indies
Group C: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe
Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, UAE
UAE fixtures
Saturday, January 18, v Canada
Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan
Saturday, January 25, v South Africa
UAE squad
Aryan Lakra (captain), Vriitya Aravind, Deshan Chethyia, Mohammed Farazuddin, Jonathan Figy, Osama Hassan, Karthik Meiyappan, Rishabh Mukherjee, Ali Naseer, Wasi Shah, Alishan Sharafu, Sanchit Sharma, Kai Smith, Akasha Tahir, Ansh Tandon
Vikram%20Vedha
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