Islamic history scholar Michael Cook wins Holberg Prize

Michael Cook, the Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies, has been awarded the Holberg Prize, a major international honor established by the Norwegian parliament to recognize outstanding scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology. 

Cook will receive an award of $765,000 with the prize, which was established in 2003. The award was announced Tuesday. Cook will receive the prize at a ceremony June 4 in Bergen, Norway. 

Cook, who joined the Princeton faculty in 1986, is a highly regarded Islamicist who has made major contributions to the intellectual history of the medieval Islamic world. His works on Muhammad and early Islamic theology have become classics. 

In its announcement of the prize, the Holberg Committee cited Cook as "one of today's leading experts on the history and religious thought of Islam. ... His contribution to the entire field, from Islam's genesis to the present, displays a mastery of textual, economic and social approaches."...