Stéphane Pradines is an archaeologist and Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Aga Khan University, Institute of Muslim Civilisations in London. He was the Director of the excavations of the Walls of Cairo in Egypt and many other excavations in the Indian Ocean (Coral mosques of the Maldives) and East Africa (Gede in Kenya, Songo Mnara, Sanje ya Kati and Kua in Tanzania and Dembeni, Mayotte in Comoros). He is a specialist of Indian Ocean trade, Swahili coast, warfare in Africa and Islamic fortifications.
