Dr. Shawkat Toorawa

Biography

Shawkat Toorawa is the Brand Blanshard Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and a Professor of Comparative Literature. His scholarly interests include classical and medieval Arabic literature, particularly the literary culture of Abbasid Baghdad, the Qur'an with a focus on hapaxes and rhyme-words, and translation studies. He has explored the role of the Waqwaq Tree islands and has conducted research on Indian Ocean studies, especially the Creole literatures of Mauritius and the Mascarenes. His extensive publications include critical works on Arabic literary culture from the 6th to 10th centuries AD, translations of Arabic poetry, and studies about the significant literary figures in premodern Arabic heritage. Toorawa has served on various editorial advisory boards for reputable journals and is the executive editor of the Library of Arabic Literature, where he spearheads the initiative to edit and translate premodern Arabic literary texts.

Research Interests