Stewart graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University in 1984 after completing a 143-page long senior thesis titled "Three Wise Men: The Safawi Religious Institution 1576 - 1629." He completed the Center for Arabic Study Abroad's program at the American University in Cairo, and then earned his PhD with distinction in Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Pennsylvania six years later.
Career
Stewart has taught Arabic studies, Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies at the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University since 1990. He also serves on the editorial board for the Library of Arabic Literature. He is one of the senior editors of the Encyclopedia of Islam.
Much of Stewart's work has focused on the reconstruction of early Muslim legal theory based on ancient texts. He has also called attention to infrequently studied genres of Arabic literature such as Maqama.
Stewart, Devin (2006). "Rhymed Prose". Encyclopaedia Of The Quran Vol 4. Brill. pp.476–484.
Stewart, Devin (2006b). "Soothsayer". Encyclopaedia Of The Quran Vol 5. Brill. pp.78–80.
Stewart, Devin (2007). "The Structure of the Fihrist: Ibn al-Nadim as Historian of Islamic Legal and Theological Schools". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 39 (3): 369–387. doi:10.1017/S0020743807070511. JSTOR30069526. S2CID161910065.
Stewart, Devin (2011). "The mysterious letterrs and other formal features of the Qurʾān in light of Greek and Babylonian oracular texts". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾān in its historical context 2. Routledge. pp.323–348.
Stewart, Devin (2017). "Reflections on the State of the Art in Western Qurʾanic Studies". In Bakhos, Carol; Cook, Michael (eds.). Islam and Its Past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qurʾan. Oxford University Press. pp.4–68.