Professor Joel Hayward

Chief Executive

jhw@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk

Academic Bio

Professor Joel Hayward, ZDaF BA MA Hons PhD FRSA FRHistS, is a New Zealand-born British scholar and author who serves as Chief Executive of the Cambridge Muslim College. The daily newspaper Al Khaleej called him “a world authority on international conflict and strategy”. The National newspaper called him “eminent” and a “distinguished historian of warfare and military strategy”. Kirkus Reviews said that he “is undeniably one of academia’s most visible Islamic thinkers”. He is considered to be one of “the world’s five hundred most influential Muslims,” with his listing in both the 2023 and 2024 editions of The Muslim 500 noting that “he weaves together classical Islamic knowledge and methodologies and the source-critical Western historical method to make innovative yet carefully reasoned sense of complex historical issues that are still important in today’s world.” With the title of Shaykh, Hayward has earned ijazat (teaching authorisations) in several Islamic sciences. ‘Aqidah (Islamic theology) and Sirah (the Prophet’s biography) are his main interests. He has held various academic leadership posts, including Director of the Institute for International and Civil Security at Khalifa University (UAE), Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (also at Khalifa University), Head of Air Power Studies at King’s College London, and Dean of the Royal Air Force College (both UK).

He is the author or editor of eighteen books and major monographs and dozens of peer-reviewed articles, mainly in the fields of strategic studies, the Islamic ethics of war and conflict, the Sirah of the Holy Prophet, and both Islamic and western history. His recent books include Warfare in the Qur’an (2012), War is Deceit: An Analysis of a Contentious Hadith on the Morality of Military Deception (2017), Civilian Immunity in Foundational Islamic Strategic Thought: A Historical Enquiry (2019), and The Leadership of Muhammad: A Historical Reconstruction. The latter won the prestigious prize of “Best International Non-Fiction Book” at the 2021 Sharjah International Book Awards. His newest book is The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War (2022), which has received widespread praise from reviewers.

Professor Hayward has given strategic advice to political and military leaders in several countries, has given policy advice to prominent sheikhs and was tutor to His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne. In 2011, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 2016, he was named as the “Best Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences” at the Middle East Education Leadership Awards. Professor Hayward is also active in the literary arts and has published three books of fiction and four collections of Islamic poetry.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Canterbury, 1996
Master of Arts with First Class Honours, University of Canterbury, 1993
― Awarded the 1993 Philip Ross May Gown (“for academic excellence at the M.A. level”)
― Awarded the Sir James Hight Memorial Prize (for the year’s best M.A. thesis)
Bachelor of Arts, University of Canterbury, 1991.
Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Z.D.a.F.) Goethe Institut, Staufen, Germany, 1994

Fellowships

Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2011 – present)
Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2012 – present)
Kurzstipendium für Doktoranden und jüngere Wissenschaftler
― Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Bonn, 1994
Research Fellow of the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, 1994

Select Publications

Academic Books & Major Monographs

The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad ﷺ and War (Swansea: Claritas Books, October 2022).
قيادة محمد ﷺ اعادة بناء تاريخي (Amman: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2023).
Etika rata u islamu (Tuzla: Dialogos, 2022).
Muhammed kao lider: historijska rekonstrukcija (Tuzla: Dialogos, 2022).
The Leadership of Muhammad ﷺ: A Historical Reconstruction (Swansea: Claritas Books, June 2021).
— Best International Non-Fiction Book at the 2021 Sharjah International Book Awards
— Turkish and Urdu translations are already underway
لله وللمجد: اللورد نيلسون وأسلوبه في الحرب (عمّان – دار أسامة للنشر والتوزيع، ٢٠٢١)
Islamic Principles of War for the Twenty-first Century English Monograph Series — Book No. 26 (Amman: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre / Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2021).
Civilian Immunity in Foundational Islamic Strategic Thought. English Monograph Series — Book No. 25 (Amman: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre / Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2018).
الحصانة المدنية في الفكر الاستراتيجي الإسلامي التأسيسي : تحقيقٌ تاريخي . Arabic Monograph Series. (Amman: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre / Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2018).
“War is Deceit”: An Analysis of a Contentious Hadith on the Morality of Military Deception. English Monograph Series — Book No. 24 (Amman: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre/Royal Aal al-Bayt Inst. for Islamic Thought, 2017).
Zatrzymani pod Stalingradem: Klęska Luftwaffe i Hitlera na wschodzie 1942-1943 (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Napoleon V, 2015)
Editor, Air Power and the Environment: The Ecological Consequences of Modern Air Warfare (Montgomery, Alabama: Air University Press, 2013. Second edition 2019).
Warfare in the Qur’an English Monograph Series — Book No. 14 (Amman: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre / Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2012).
Editor, Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” (Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies, 2009).
신과 영광을 위해: 넬슨 경과 그의 전쟁 방식 (Goyang-Si: In-Gan-Sar-Rang, 2004).
For God and Glory: Lord Nelson and His Way of War (US Naval Institute Press, 2003. Second edition 2019).
Co-Author, Born to Lead: Portraits of New Zealand Commanders (with Glyn Harper: Exisle Press, 2003).
Adolf Hitler and Joint Warfare (Wellington: Military Studies Institute, 2000).
A Joint Future? The Move to Jointness and its Implications for the New Zealand Defence Force (Wellington: Centre for Defence Studies, 2000).
Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Defeat in the East 1942-1943 (University Press of Kansas, 1998, 2001 and other editions).

Literary Books

وحشيّ وغيرها من القصص الإسلامية القصيرة (Amman: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2018).
جني ذات الأسنان الخضراء وقصص قصيرة أُخرى (Amman: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2018).
The Savage and other Islamic Short Stories (Swansea: Claritas, 2018).
Pain and Passing: Islamic Poems of Grief and Healing (Swansea: Claritas, 2018).
Poems from the Straight Path: A Collection of Islamic Verse (Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2017)
Splitting the Moon: A Book of Islamic Poetry (Markfield, UK: Kube, 2012).
No Lamp in the Cave: Islamic Short Stories (CreateSpace, 2012).
Jenny Green Teeth and Other Short Stories (Palmerston North: Totem Press, 2003).
Lifeblood: A Book of Poems (Palmerston North: Totem Press, 2003).

Books in Progress

The Diplomacy of Muhammad ﷺ (Swansea: Claritas, 2024).
An Ecological History of War: The Environmental Consequences of Warfare from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2024).