Curriculum vitae

Professional and Academic Positions

• 1/1/2024-Present: Cataloguer of Arabic manuscripts, Sinai Manuscripts Digital Library, University of California Los Angeles. CA, USA
• 15/7/2022-Present: Research Fellow, Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich
• 15/7/2020- 31/12/2023: Cataloguer of Arabic manuscripts, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, St. John’s University, MN, USA
• 15/7/2020- 14/7/2022: Visiting Researcher, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
• 8/7/2019- 14/7/2020: Research Associate, Stories of Survival: Recovering the Connected Histories of Eastern Christianity in the Early Modern World. Faculty of History, University of Oxford. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC)
• 1/4/2015-7/7/2019: Research Assistant, Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich. Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
• 2/7/2013- 31/3/2015: Research Assistant, Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Free University, Berlin. Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
• 7/11/1998- 31/12/2010 Pharmacist

Teaching experience

• 1/2/2022-1/6/2022 Private tutor, Palaeography and reading of Arabic manuscripts (12 hours), Oxford
• 1/9/2011- 30/5/2012 Lecturer, Church History/Eastern Churches History Courses in the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) (in Arabic)
• 1/7/2008- 30/6/2009 Lecturer, Basic Biblical Greek Courses in the Anglican Theological Seminary (Alexandria School of Theology) (in Arabic)

Funding

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship “Travelers on the Margins: Mobility of Arabic-Speaking Christians in the Ottoman Empire” Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich (July 2024-June 2026)

Education

• 1/4/2014-18/6/2019: Ph.D., History and Culture of the Near East, Institute of Near & Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany (started at Free University, Berlin 1/4/2014-1/4/2015)
  Dissertation: The Pauline Epistles in Arabic: Manuscripts, Versions, and Text Transmission
  Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ronny Vollandt

• 1/9/2012-20/5/2013: Th.M., New Testament Studies
  Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ, USA

• 15/9/2009-15/6/2011: M.A., Christianity in the Middle East, Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo
  Thesis: al-Asʻad Hibat Allāh ibn al-ʿAssāl: His Contribution to the Formation of New Identity of Copts in Egypt through his Critical Translation of the Gospel of Luke.
  Supervisor: Dr. Atef M. Gendy
• 15/9/2001-1/6/2006: B.A., Theological Sciences, Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo
• 1/10/1993- 30/6/1998: B.A., Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zagazig University

Manuscript and Digital Humanities Training

• 14-18/8/2019: Islamicate Digital Humanities School for Scholars Working with Manuscripts, University of Hamburg
• 10-15/9/2017: ManuSciences ’17, Manuscripts: From Fragments to Books—From Identification to Interpretation, École pratique des hautes études and Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung
• 9-13/6/2014: Arabic Manuscripts Course, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

Presentations & Conference Papers

• November 2023: Priests and their Manuscripts in the Holy Land and Sinai Conference, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
  “From Nilus of Damascus to Simon of Emesa: Clusters of manuscript production at Mount Sinai across the centuries”

• July 2023: Arabic biblical Interpretation workshop, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich
  “Hidden Commentaries: The Introductions to the Arabic translations of the Pauline Epistles”

• April 2023: The Bible and Arab Christianity: Translation, Interpretation, and Context Workshop, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
  “Arabic Translations of the Philippians and Colossians Hymns in MSS Vatican Ar. 13 and London, BL, Or. 8612”

• April 2023: The Quotidian and the Divine: Early Modern Gendered Economies of Monasticism in the Eastern Christian World, University of Michigan
  “Nuns and Monks in the Making of Christian Arabic Manuscripts”

• January 2023: Coptic Bible Symposium, St. Mark Institute, Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt
  “Translating the Bible into Arabic: Approaches and Strategies of the thirteenth-century Coptic Scholars”

• July 2022: XIII Symposium Syriacum et 11e Congrès international d’études arabes chrétiennes, Paris
  “Coptic Networks in the fourteenth-century Egypt and Syria: Tūmā ibn al-Ṣāʼigh and his clients”

• December 2021: Scribal Identity and Agency Conference, the Early Text Cultures Research Networks, University of Oxford (online conference, invited)
  “To be a Scribe of Christian Arabic Texts: Skills and Challenges”

• May 2021: MIDA Training Gotha 2021, Gotha Library, Erfurt University (online workshop, invited)
  “Examining Manuscripts through a Cataloger’s Lenses”

• April 2021: Republics of Letters around the Globe, ERC-funded project Skillnet, Utrecht University (webinar, invited)
  “The Internal Mobility of Arabic-speaking Christians in the Ottoman Empire”
• March 2021: Qur’an and Bible, University of Notre Dame and ERC-funded project “The European Qur’an” (online workshop, invited)
  “Translating the King James Bible into Arabic: The Sabat/Martyn Translation (1816 CE)”

• February 2020: The Center of Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford (seminar, invited)
  “Translating the Bible into Arabic with the Qur'an in Mind”

• January 2020: The History of the Book, Weston Library, Oxford (seminar, invited)
  “Stories of Survival: The Lives and Afterlives of Eastern Christian Manuscripts in the Early Modern World” (co-presented)

• September 2019: Coptic and Arabic Bible, Digitale Gesamtedition des koptisch-sahidischen Alten Testaments & Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (workshop, invited)
  “Explaining Coptic Grammar through the Arabic Bible: MS Vatican, BAV, Copt. 14”

• September 2019: Interreligious Hermeneutics, Centre for the Interpretation of Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient and Contemporary Contexts, Stellenbosch University, South Africa (conference, invited)
  “Reading the Qur’an in the Arabic Bible: A Survey of Different Translations”

• August 2018: International Society of Biblical Literature Conference (ISBL), Helsinki
  “Before the Polyglots: The Journey of a Text of the Arabic Pauline Epistles”

• April 2017: Translators, Copyists, and Interpreters: Jews, Christians and Muslims and the Transmission of the Bible in Arabic in the Middle Ages Conference, Cordoba (conference, invited)
  “The Life Story of Ms. Sinai, Ar. 151”

• February 2017: The 25th Conference of the Arabic Christian Heritage, Cairo
  “Sinai Arabic 151: Many Translations and One Manuscript” (in Arabic)

• August 2016: XII Symposium Syriacum et X Congrès international d’études arabes chrétiennes, Rome
  “The Versions of the Arabic Pauline Epistles”

• March 2016: The Bible in Arabic: Christianity and Judaism in the Language of Islam, Uppsala (conference, invited)
  “The Textual History of the Arabic Pauline Epistles”

• July 2016: European Association of Biblical Studies Conference (EABS), Cordoba
  “Manuscript Sinai Arabic 310: A Bible in Qur’anic Language”

• May 2015: Nida School for Translation Studies (NSTS), Misano Adriatico, Italy (summer school)
  “The Arabic Pauline Letters: The Trends and Strategies of Translation (9th -14th century)”

• July 2014: International Societies of Biblical Literature Conference (ISBL), Vienna
  “Paul and the Pauline Epistles in the Islamic Polemical Works”

Research Expeditions and Library Visits

2015-2019 Annual Biblia Arabica team expedition to St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt

In the course of my studies and work, I paid regular research visits to the British Library, Bodleian libraries, Cambridge University libraries, Berlin State Library, and Bavarian State Library. Other occasional research visits include the following libraries: The Vatican Library; Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan; Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence; the National Library of Russia and the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, St. Petersburg

Organization of International Conferences

• February-March 2020: Committee member of the concluding conference of the ERC-funded project Stories of Survival (not held because of Covid)

Public Engagement Activities

• May 2017: Invited to and presented a public lecture entitled “The Story of the Arabic Bible: Translating the Pauline Epistles” in the Münchner Zentrum Für Islamstudien (MZIS), Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich

• December 2015: Contributing to the celebration of 150 years on the Van Dyke Arabic Translation of the Bible organized by Center for Middle Eastern Christianity (CMEC), jointly with the Center of Coptic Studies of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. I also presented a paper entitled “The History of the Printed Editions of the Arabic Pauline Epistles”

Languages

• Spoken and written Arabic and English
• German (B2)
• Fair knowledge of Syriac and Biblical Greek
• Basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and French

References

• Prof. Andreas Kaplony, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich (andreas.kaplony@lmu.de)
• Prof. John-Paul Ghobrial, Faculty of History, Oxford University (john-paul.ghobrial@balliol.ox.ac.uk)
• Prof. Ronny Vollandt, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich (ronny.vollandt@lmu.de)