Ahmad Al-Jallad

Last updated

Ahmad Al-Jallad is a Jordanian-American philologist, epigraphist, and a historian of language. Some of the areas he has contributed to include Quranic studies and the history of Arabic, including recent work he has done on pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions written in Safaitic and Paleo-Arabic. He is currently Professor in the Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at Ohio State University at the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures. [1] He is the winner of the 2017 Dutch Gratama Science Prize. [2]

Contents

Biography

Al-Jallad was born in Salt Lake City. As an undergraduate, he attended the University of South Florida. He entered Harvard University for his doctoral program in Semitic philology and received his Ph.D. in 2012. Two of his mentors during his studies were Michael C. A. Macdonald from the University of Oxford and John Huehnergard from Harvard University. One of his earliest achievements was reconstructing a previously unknown Arabian zodiac from pre-Islamic Arabia. He is presently considered one of the foremost authorities on the early history of the Arabic language and script and he helps direct archaeological expeditions across the Middle East. [3]

Al-Jallad has contributed to the decipherment and interpretation of the inscriptions of Ancient Arabia, especially Safaitic and Thamudic, and more broadly to the history of the Arabic language and its position within the Semitic language family. [4] He has discovered and studied a number of important texts for the history and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Arabs, and the background of Islam. [5] [6] He is also a pioneer in the documentation and study of the Paleo-Arabic inscriptions. [7] [8] Alongside Karolina Jaworska, he published the first comprehensive dictionary of the Safaitic script. [9] He is the Scientific Director and Project Manager of the OCIANA database for inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia.

Notable publications

See also

References

  1. "Ahmad Al-Jallad | Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures" . Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  2. "Ahmad Al-Jallad wint Gratama Wetenschapsprijs". Universiteit Leiden. September 4, 2017.
  3. Muhanna, Elias (2018-05-23). "A New History of Arabia, Written in Stone". The New Yorker . ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  4. Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Al-Jallad. 2018. The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification" via www.academia.edu.
  5. Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Al-Jallad. 2020. The Linguistic Landscape of pre-Islamic Arabia -- Context for the Qur'an". OHoQuran via www.academia.edu.Al-Jallad, Ahmad (June 14, 2015). "Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 15 (1): 5–19. doi:10.1163/15692124-12341267 via www.academia.edu.
  6. Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Al-Jallad. 2020. ʿArab, ʾAʿrāb, and Arabic in Ancient North Arabia: the first attestation of (ʾ)ʿrb as a group name in Safaitic". doi:10.1111/AAE.12157 via www.academia.edu.Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Al-Jallad. 2022. The pre-Islamic basmala: Reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance" via www.academia.edu.Al-Jallad, Ahmad (January 1, 2021). "Al-Jallad. 2021. The Pre-Islamic Divine Name ʿsy and the Background of the Qurʾānic Jesus, with Ali al-Manaser". JIQSA via www.academia.edu.
  7. Sidky, Hythem; Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Al-Jallad and Sidky. 2021. A Paleo-Arabic inscription on a route north of Ṭāʾif". doi:10.1111/AAE.12203 via www.academia.edu.
  8. Al-Jallad, Ahmad; Sidky, Hythem (April 1, 2024). "A Paleo-Arabic Inscription of a Companion of Muhammad?" . Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 83 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1086/729531 via CrossRef.
  9. Al-Jallad, Ahmad; Jaworska, Karolina (2019). A Dictionary of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Brill. p. 20. ISBN   978-90-04-40042-9.