Notes on Contributors
Ilyass Amharar is Franco-Moroccan and shares his time between Casablanca and Paris. He graduated from Sorbonne University in Paris (2017) with a Master thesis on Ibn Mālik’s (d. 672/1274) ʾAlfiyya and Ibn Tūmart’s (d. 524/1146) Muršida. In 2021, he completed a PhD at Aix-Marseille University on the relationship between Arabic language and theology among ʾAšʿarī authors, based on a treatise by al-Qāḍī Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148), under the supervision of late lamented Prof. Éric Chaumont. He also works on the critical edition of Ibn Ḫarūf’s manuscript of Sībawayhi’s (d. 180/796?) Kitāb.
Francesco Binaghi obtained his PhD in Arabic linguistics (Aix-Marseille University, 2015) with a dissertation on the history of grammatical studies in al-Andalus and the Maghreb. He is currently lecturer (associate professor) at the university Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, and researcher at the Laboratoire d’ Histoire des Théories Linguistiques (Université Paris Cité/Université Sorbonne Nouvelle/CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France). His research interests mainly deal with the history and epistemology of the Arabic grammatical tradition, notably in al-Andalus and the Islamic West, and he has recently edited a thematic issue of the journal Histoire Épistémologie Langage (40/2, 2018) on the contribution of Andalusi grammarians to the Arabic linguistic tradition. In the broader field of Arabic linguistics, he has also co-edited Fuṣḥā écrit contemporain. Usages et nouveaux développements (Diacritiques Éditions, 2019, with Manuel Sartori) on the exploration of linguistic features specific to Contemporary Written Fuṣḥā.
Michael G. Carter after a D.Phil. (Oxon.), taught at Sydney University (1968–1985), New York University (1986–1996) and Oslo University (from 1996 until retirement in 2004). Research interests are Sībawayhi and early Arabic grammatical theory, and the relationship between grammar, law and philosophy in early Islam.
Hanadi Dayyeh PhD at the American University of Beirut, is a researcher in the field of Arabic Historical Linguistics. Her research concentrates on Sībawayhi’s linguistic theory and its impact on the evolution of the Arabic linguistic tradition. In the field of Arabic Linguistics, she also focuses on language acquisition and its implications on the teaching of Arabic. Her work experience in the field of teaching and researching teaching methods in Arabic language, both to native and non-native speakers, extends over 15 years and she has produced a number of textbooks in this field.
Jean N. Druel is French and lives in Cairo. He graduated in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language at the American University in Cairo (AUC, 2006), and in 2012 he completed a PhD in the history of Arabic grammar at the University of Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, under the supervision of Prof. Kees Versteegh. He currently works on the edition of the Milan, Ambrosiana X 56 sup. manuscript which contains one fourth of Sībawayhi’s (d. 180/796?) Kitāb.
Manuela E.B. Giolfo holds an M.A. in philosophy from Milan University, and a PhD in Arabic linguistics from Aix-Marseille University. She was lecturer in Arabic at Exeter University (2008–2013) before moving to the University of Genoa, where she is lecturer in Arabic language and philology. She edited Arab and Arabic linguistics (Oxford, 2014), and co-edited Approaches to the history and dialectology of Arabic in honor of Pierre Larcher (Leiden, 2016, with Manuel Sartori and late lamented Philippe Cassuto). She is also the author of Les systèmes hypothétiques de l’ arabe classique (Rome, 2017).
Wilfrid Hodges is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London, specializing in mathematical logic and logical semantics. Since his retirement he has been working on Medieval Arabic logic, in particular that of Ibn Sīnā (d. 427/1037). Books on the logic of Ibn Sīnā and Fārābī (d. 339/950) are in preparation (one joint with Saloua Chatti). He also has a project with Manuela E.B. Giolfo to compare the views of Sīrāfī and Ibn Sīnā in areas where linguistics and logic overlap.
Giuliano Lancioni PhD in Linguistics (Roma Tre University), is full professor of Arabic language and literature at Roma Tre University. His research interests include the history of the Arabic linguistic thinking, Arabic corpus and computational linguistics, and information retrieval from Arabic texts. He co-edited the collective monographs The Word in Arabic (Brill, 2011, with Lidia Bettini) and Dār al-islām / dār al-ḥarb: Territories, People, Identities (Brill, 2017, with Vanna Calasso).
Hideki Okazaki his research field is Arabic grammatical thought. Articles published in Japanese include “Ibn al-Sarrāǧ, Kitāb al-ʾUṣūl fī al-Naḥw Kara Mita Arabu Bunpou Ronsou [The Arab Grammatical Controversies in the Light of Ibn al-Sarrāǧ’s Kitāb al-ʾUṣūl fī al-Naḥw],” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 7, 2009, and “9-Seiki No Arabu Bunpougaku Niokeru Shishi Shoujyou: Kufa Gakuha No Bunpouka Ṯaʿlab Ni Kansuru Ichikousatsu [A Succession from Teachers to Deciples in the 9th-century Arab Grammar: A Study of the Kufan Grammarian Ṯaʿlab],” Shitennoji University Bulletin 51, 2010.
Simona Olivieri holds a PhD in Arabic language and linguistics (2016) from Sapienza University of Rome. She is currently postdoctoral research associate and lecturer at the Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik at Freie Universität Berlin, where she does research on classical Arabic and the Arabic linguistic tradition. Her research interests include Arabic language and linguistics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, and digital humanities.
Haruko Sakaedani is a part-time lecturer in Arabic at Keio University, the University of Tokyo, Tokai University and Waseda University. She holds an M.A. in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo and a PhD in Arabic linguistics from the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Manuel Sartori after graduating in comparative politics at the Institute of Political Studies (IEP, Aix-en-Provence, 1999) and in Arabic studies at Aix-Marseille University (AMU, 2004), Manuel Sartori became senior teacher (professeur agrégé) in Arabic (2009) and completed a PhD in Arabic language and linguistics at AMU (2012). Formerly lecturer at IEP, he is currently Professor of Arabic grammar and linguistics at AMU and researcher at IREMAM. His research interests include Arabic grammar and linguistics (diachronic and synchronic, medieval and contemporary) and the history of the Arabic language. He notably co-edited Approaches to the History and Dialectology of Arabic in Honor of Pierre Larcher (Brill, 2016, with Manuela E.B. Giolfo and late lamented Philippe Cassuto), Case and Mood Endings in Semitic Languages—Myth or Reality? (Harrassowitz, 2018, with Lutz Edzard and late lamented Philippe Cassuto) and Fuṣḥā écrit contemporain. Usages et nouveaux développements (Diacritiques Éditions, 2019, with Francesco Binaghi). For more details please visit
Raoul Villano PhD in Islamic Civilization, History and Philology (Sapienza University of Rome), he is now associate professor at Roma Tre University where he teaches Arabic language and literature. His main research interests are Qurʾānic studies, the history of the Arabic linguistic tradition and Ṭabaqāt biographical literature. He has published a monograph on the Qurʾān (La struttura binaria del Corano, Istituto per l’ Oriente C.A. Nallino, 2018) and he is now editing a special issue of Language & History on “Formal Models in the History of Arabic Linguistic Tradition” (forthcoming).