In this first critical biography of Fethullah Gulen in English, historian Jon Pahl takes us on a journey where we discover wisdom and controversy, from 1940’s Turkey to the U.S. in the twenty-first century.

Pahl tells the story of a pious Muslim boy from a tiny and remote Turkish village who on the one hand has in spired a global movement of millions of individuals dedicated to literacy, social enterprise, and inter-religious dialogue, but who on the other hand has been monitored by Turkish police, see n as a threat by autocrats, and recently declared number one enemy by the current Turkish dictator.