He completed a new and expanded edition of his 1999 book ''Approaching the Qur'an: the Early Revelations
which was at the center of the case Yacovelli v. Moeser'' about the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's summer program in 2002. Sells also published three volumes on Arabic poetry,
Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes,
Stations of Desire, and
The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Al-Andalus, which he co-edited and to which he contributed. His books on mysticism include
Early Islamic Mysticism, translations and commentaries on influential mystical passages from the
Quran,
hadith, Arabic poetry, and early Sufi writings, as well as
Mystical Languages of Unsaying, an examination of
apophatic language, with special attention to
Plotinus,
John Scotus Eriugena,
Ibn Arabi,
Meister Eckhart, and
Marguerite Porete. His work on religion and violence includes
The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, and
The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy which he co-edited and to which he contributed. He teaches courses on the topics of the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, and ibn Arabi. ==Christoslavism==