External links
- Bibliography at GoodReads.
- Resume of Dr. Orfali at the American University of Beirut's official site.
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Bilal Orfali is a Lebanese scholar of Arabic language and literature. He currently serves as Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. [1] [2] He is considered an expert on Arabic prose and poetry, especially during the 10th century. [3]
Orfali earned a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the American University of Beirut in 2000, 2001 and 2003 respectively. He then went on to earn a Master of Philosophy in 2006 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2009, both from Yale University. [4] [5] Orfali is currently a professor of Arabic studies at AUB, while also having served as a visiting scholar at the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey from 2011 to 2012. [3] [5] He also serves as the director of the AUB's intensive CAMES summer program for Arabic language education. [6]
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Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Eastern Christian Studies or Jewish Studies but also fields such as —where scholars from diverse disciplines participate and exchange ideas pertaining to the particular field of study.
Fakir, faqeer, or faqīr, derived from faqr, is an Islamic term traditionally used for Sufi Muslim ascetics who renounce their worldly possessions and dedicate their lives to the worship of God. They do not necessarily renounce all relationships and take vows of poverty, some may be poor and some may even be wealthy, but the adornments of the temporal worldly life are kept in perspective and do not detract from their constant dedication to God. The connotations of poverty associated with the term relate to their spiritual neediness, not necessarily their physical neediness.
Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad , often referred to as Ibn Qudamah or Ibn Qudama for short, was a Sunni Muslim ascetic, jurisconsult, Traditionalist theologian. Having authored many important treatises on Islamic jurisprudence and religious doctrine, including one of the standard works of Hanbali law, the revered al-Mug̲h̲nī, Ibn Qudamah is highly regarded in Sunnism for being one of the most notable and influential thinkers of the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence. Within that school, he is one of the few thinkers to be given the honorific epithet of Shaykh of Islam, which is a prestigious title bestowed by Sunnis on some of the most important thinkers of their tradition. A proponent of the classical Sunni position of the "differences between the scholars being a mercy," Ibn Qudamah is famous for having said: "The consensus of the Imams of jurisprudence is an overwhelming proof and their disagreement is a vast mercy."
Al-Tha'alibi (961–1038), was a writer famous for his anthologies and collections of epigrams. As a writer of prose and verse in his own right, distinction between his and the work of others is sometimes lacking, as was the practice of writers of the time.
Ḥamāsah is a well-known ten-book anthology of Arabic poetry, compiled in the 9th century by Abu Tammam. Along with the Asma'iyyat, Mufaddaliyat, Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab, and Mu'allaqat, Hamasah is considered one of the primary sources of early Arabic poetry. The work is especially important for having been the first Arabic anthology compiled by a poet and not a philologist and is the first in the Hamasah literary genre. The first and largest section of the work, al-ḥamāsah (valour), provides the name for several other anthologies of this type.
Abu ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Amr ibn Tammām al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī al-Yaḥmadī, known as Al-Farāhīdī, or Al-Khalīl, was an Arab philologist, lexicographer and leading grammarian of Basra based on Iraq. He made the first dictionary of the Arabic language – and the oldest extant dictionary – Kitab al-'Ayn – introduced the now standard harakat system, and was instrumental in the early development of ʿArūḍ, musicology and poetic metre. His linguistic theories influenced the development of Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu prosody. The "Shining Star" of the Basran school of Arabic grammar, a polymath and scholar, he was a man of genuinely original thought.
Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Duraid al-Azdī al-Baṣrī ad-Dawsī Al-Zahrani, or Ibn Duraid, a leading grammarian of Baṣrah, was described as "the most accomplished scholar, ablest philologer and first poet of the age", was from Baṣra in the Abbasid era. Ibn Duraid is best known today as the lexicographer of the influential dictionary, the Jamharat al-Lugha. The fame of this comprehensive dictionary of the Arabic language is second only to its predecessor, the Kitab al-'Ayn of al-Farahidi.
Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Ali al-Makki, was a hadith scholar, Shafi'i jurist, and Sufi mystic.
Abū Ḥayyān Athīr ad-Dīn al-Gharnāṭī, whose full name is Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf bin ‘Alī ibn Yūsuf ibn Hayyān, sometimes called Ibn Hayyan, was a celebrated commentator on the Quran and foremost Arabic grammarian of his era. His magnum opus Tafsir al-Bahr al-Muhit is the most important reference on Qur'anic expressions and the issues of grammar, vocabulary, etymology and the transcriber-copyists of the Qur'an. Quite exceptionally for a linguist of Arabic of his day was his strong interest in non-Arabic languages. He wrote several works of comparative linguistics for Arabic speakers, and gives extensive comparative grammatical analysis and explanation.
Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, FBA, or R. A. Nicholson, was an eminent English orientalist, scholar of both Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism and widely regarded as one of the greatest Rumi scholars and translators in the English language.
Sami Makarem was a Druze Lebanese scholar, writer, poet and artist; he was born in the village of Aitat in Aley district and is best known for his academic contributions in the fields of Islamic studies, Sufism, and Islamic history.
Lina Choueiri is a Lebanese Associate Professor in Linguistics at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She was the Chairperson of the department of English from 2006 to 2009. Choueiri has been serving as AUB's first deputy provost since July 2021 and threatened severe sanctions against AUB's Secular Club for exercising free speech rights critical of AUB.
The Project of Translation from Arabic is an academic project initiated by Dr Salma Khadra Jayyusi in 1980 in order to translate, and publish, works of Arabic literature into the English language. The stated goal of PROTA is "the dissemination of Arabic culture and literature abroad." The project had its genesis in the late 1970s when Columbia University Press invited Jayyusi to prepare a large anthology of modern Arabic literature. Funding came from the Iraqi Ministry of Information and Culture. Two major anthologies came out of this early endeavour: Modern Arabic Poetry (1987) and The Literature of Modern Arabia (1988).
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣbahānī, also known as Avendeath, was a medieval theologian and scholar of the Arabic language and Islamic law. He was one of the early propagators of his father Dawud al-Zahiri's method in jurisprudence, Zahirism.
Abu Muhammad Ruwaym bin Ahmad was an early Muslim jurist, ascetic, saint and reciter of the Qur'an. He was one of the second generation of practitioners of Sufism (tasawwuf).
Devin J. Stewart is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic language and literature. His research interests include Islamic law, the Qur'an, Islamic schools and branches and varieties of Arabic.
Ihsan Abbas was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut, and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. The "author of over one hundred books", during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.
Professor Gerhard Böwering is a German academic, currently Professor of Islamic Studies within the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1994. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 following his "formative influence of al-Sulami's commentary on the Qur'an."
Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab is an early Arabic poetry anthology by Abu Zayd al-Qurashi. The date of publication is unknown, and al-Qurashi is supposed by various scholars to have lived in the 8th, 9th or 10th centuries. It contains seven sections, each containing seven qasidas.
Ibn Bāṭīsh was a Muslim scholar and jurist belonging to the Shāfiʿī maddhab. He was the muftī of Aleppo from 1230 until his death.
