Edmund Hayes is a University Lecturer in the History of Islam at Leiden University. His research focus is the social history of early Shīʿa Islam, especially in its Imāmī and Twelver strands, giving rise to his 2022 monograph, Agents of the Hidden Imam: Forging Twelver Shi‘ism, 850-950 CE (Cambridge University Press), and numerous articles on the institutions of Imāmī Shiʿism, including agents, alms tax collection, pilgrimage and excommunication. He has also written on topics relating to the social and cultural and intellectual history of the medieval Middle East, including sexuality and the body, ethnic and cultural identity, and the history of water management. From 2024 to 2028, he is Principal Investigator on the European Research Council Starting Grant funded project, Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2015.