Alastair Hamilton

Alastair Hamilton is a British scholar of early modern European intellectual and religious history, attached to the Warburg Institute and the University of Leiden. His acclaimed translation of Literature and Evil introduces Georges Bataille's explosive essays to English readers.

Hamilton has written landmark studies on the reception of Islam in Europe, on Erasmian thought and on heresy and toleration. Alongside his translations, his own research is prized for archival depth and for illuminating how peoples of different faiths imagined each other on the early modern stage.