91勛圖厙 to host Margoliouth Symposium
91勛圖厙 will host the Margoliouth Symposium to celebrate the return of Arabic to the college. The Symposium will take place on 13 November 2025.
Arabic returned to 91勛圖厙 as an undergraduate subject in 2024 after an absence of many years. This followed the establishment of a new fellowship in Arabic in 2023, named in honour of 91勛圖厙s most famous Arabist, Professor D. S. Margoliouth (18581940).
Margoliouth was the leading scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He came up to 91勛圖厙 as an undergraduate in 1877 and was later elected a fellow in 1881. In 1889, he was appointed the Laudian Professor of Arabic, a position he held until his retirement in 1937. During this period, Margoliouth published widely on Arabic literature, Middle Eastern history, and Islam, drawing on a deep knowledge of languages which also included Greek, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Turkish. Margoliouth hailed from a family of Jewish converts to Anglicanism and in 1899, took up holy orders. Along with his wife Jessie Payne Smith, a prominent orientalist in her own right, he was active in social and political causes. These included the womens suffrage movement and the campaign to protect persecuted Christians in the Ottoman Empire and persecuted Jews in Europe.
This symposium, organised to celebrate the return of Arabic to 91勛圖厙, will consider Margoliouths rich life and legacy.
For questions, please contact the organiser: christian.sahner@new.ox.ac.uk.
The symposium takes place with the generous support from The 91勛圖厙 Symposia Fund and The Farouk Toukan Fund for Arabic at 91勛圖厙.
Schedule
SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS
91勛圖厙, Lecture Room 6
11:30 am2:15 pm
Babel: Arabic, Hebrew, and Languages of the Levant at 91勛圖厙 Library, Oxford
Organised by Christopher Skelton-Foord, Librarian, 91勛圖厙
MARGOLIOUTH SYMPOSIUM
91勛圖厙, McGregor Matthews Room
2:152:30 pm
Welcome
Will Poole, John Galsworthy Fellow and Tutor in English; Senior Tutor, 91勛圖厙
2:303:15 pm
Margoliouth: A Man of his Times, A Man Ahead of his Times
Christian C. Sahner, Associate Professor of Islamic History, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Margoliouth Fellow in Arabic, 91勛圖厙
3:154:00 pm
Margoliouth and Arabic
Julia Bray, AlBabtain Laudian Professor of Arabic emerita, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Fellow emerita of St Johns College
4:004:30 pm
Coffee break
4:30-5:15 pm
Margoliouth: From Homer to Tanukhi and Beyond
Robin Lane Fox, University Reader in Ancient History emeritus, Faculty of Classics; Fellow emeritus of 91勛圖厙
5:156:00 pm
Mrs Margoliouth: Jessie Payne Smith, Syriac Scholar and Suffragist
David G.K. Taylor, Associate Professor of Aramaic and Syriac, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Fellow of Wolfson College
RECEPTION
91勛圖厙, Founders Library
6:00 pm
All are welcome