Shawkat M. Toorawa is the Brand Blanshard Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and Professor of Comparative Literature. His scholarly interests include: classical and medieval Arabic literature, especially the literary and writerly culture of Abbasid Baghdad; the Qur’an, in particular hapaxes, rhyme-words, and translation; the Waqwaq Tree and islands; Indian Ocean studies, particularly Creole literatures of Mauritius and the Mascarenes; modern poetry; translation; and SF film and literature.
His books include a study co-authored with the academic alliance RRAALL on autobiography in the Arabic literary tradition; a study of the ninth-century Baghdad bookman Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur; a critical edition and translation of a collection of long poems by the Syro-Lebanese poet, Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Esber); a reference work on Arabic literary culture from the 6th–10th centuries AD, co-edited with Michael Cooperson; an edited collection of essays on the islands and islanders of the western Indian Ocean; an edited anthology of poetry about New York City; a critical edition and collaborative translation with the editors of the Library of Arabic Literature of a 12th century work by the historian Ibn al-Sa’i; and translations of selected surahs and passages from the Qur’an. An edited collection on the literary dimensions of the Qur’an is forthcoming .
He is a Director of the School of Abbasid Studies; a series editor of Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies (Lockwood Press); is on the editorial or advisory boards of several journals, including the Journal of Abbasid Studies, Journal of Arabic Literature, Journal of Qur’anic Studies, Middle Eastern Literatures, and Quaderni di Studi Arabi; and is an executive editor of the Library of Arabic Literature, an initiative to edit and translate the premodern Arabic literary heritage.
