by Rabban Sauma

To be an ethnographer means being a particular kind of writer, one who writes about an ethnos: a people, tribe or other social group, including Muslim communities. Christians and Muslims have differences of belief, which deserve serious inquiry, but if you choose to do ethnographic research, you will not be studying Islamic theology or developing a Christian apologetic. You will be a specialist in people, in Muslim men and women: their thinking, their customs, their behavior, and their spiritual life.