Sultān Ghālib al-Qu‘aitī was educated at Millfield School and Magdalen College Oxford, Magdalene College Cambridge and SOAS. He holds Honours Degrees in Oriental Studies and Arabian Studies.
The last Sultan of Hadramaut (the Qu‘aitī State), he has always pursued his love of history, literature and current events while writing, aiding post-graduate scholars and translating. His last major work ‘The Holy Cities, the Pilgrimage and the World of Islam – a History from the Earliest Traditions till 1925’ was published in 2006 and described as a ‘unique, ground-breaking book’.