Professor of the Sheikh Zayed Chair in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut

Dr Bilal Orfali is a researcher, academic, and the Sheikh Zayed Professor for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He previously held the M.S. Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at the Ohio State University.

He holds an MPhil (2006) and PhD (2009) in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University (2009), a BA (2001) and MA (2003) in Arabic language and literature from the American University of Beirut, and a BS (2000) in Mathematics (with a minor in Statistics) from the American University of Beirut.

An internationally recognized scholar, Dr Orfali lectured widely in the Middle East, Europe, and the USA. He serves on the advisory and editorial boards of several Journals, book series, and encyclopaedias and he is active in several academic and outreach projects in the Middle East and Europe.

Seeking to overcome the rigid and arbitrary boundaries often dividing specialists in classical Arabic literature and Islamic thought, his work aims to show how the fields of Qur’anic studies, theology, Sufism, history, literature, philosophy, lexicography, and grammar, often intersect forming a complex and interesting nexus of relations such that a nuanced understanding of any of these disciplines cannot be achieved in isolation from the others.

Director of Sheikh Zayed Centre for Arabic Language and Islamic Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University

Dr Xue Qing-Guo was born in 1964 in China. He currently holds the positions of Professor and Director of Sheikh Zayed Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). He also serves as Vice President of the Chinese Association of Middle East Studies, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Association for Arabic Literature Studies, and Member of the China Writers Association.

Dr Xue is engaged in research and translation of modern Arabic literature, the history of Arab culture, and Sino-Arab relations. His academic works include “The Image of China in Modern Arabic Culture”, “Panorama of Arabic Literature”, and others.

He translated 22 works of modern Arabic literature, including the works of Gibran Khalil Gibran, Naguib Mahfouz, Adonis, Mahmoud Darwish, and others. He also cooperated with the renowned Syrian scholar, Mr Firas Sawah, to translate several Chinese cultural classics into Arabic, including “The Analects of Confucius” and “Lao Zi and Mencius” into Arabic. He published many theses and articles on modern Arab thoughts, literature, and Arab-China relations in Chinese and Arabic periodicals and newspapers.

In 2017, Dr Xue Qing-Guo was awarded the Shaikh Hamad Prize for Translation and International Understanding, and in 2022, he received the prestigious Lu Xun Literature Prize in China.