Arabic language research centres

Société asiatique

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (host)

A general orientalist society publishing the Journal asiatique since 1822, holding monthly sessions and a library with oriental manuscripts; Arabic is one of its fields among many Asian ones.

France · Paris

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

A learned society for Asian studies that publishes its Journal and opens its collections of manuscripts and books; Arabic is one of its fields within an all-Asia remit.

United Kingdom · London

Arabic Studies, Leiden Institute for Area Studies

Leiden University

Research on the history of Arabic, ancient Arabian epigraphy and philology, with a major Oriental manuscript collection.

Netherlands · Leiden

Semitic Languages, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University

Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University

Research on Arabic syntax, modern dialects, manuscript textual criticism, literature and media.

Sweden · Uppsala

Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica (PISAI)

Holy See (Missionaries of Africa)

Higher-education and research institute in Arabic language and Islamic studies, awarding degrees.

Italy · Rome

Orientální ústav AV ČR (Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences)

Czech Academy of Sciences

Research institute whose Middle East department studies Arabic and Islamic cultures, texts and history.

Czech Republic · Prague

Orientalisches Institut, Universität Leipzig

Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies, Leipzig University

Research and teaching in Arabic and Islamic studies, including Arabic linguistics, translation and the university's manuscripts.

Germany · Leipzig

Área de Estudios Árabes e Islámicos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Departamento de Lingüística, Estudios Árabes, Hebreos, Vascos y de Asia Oriental, Facultad de Filología

Research on the Arabic language in its varieties, al-Andalus and classical Arabo-Islamic civilisation, and the contemporary Arab world.

Spain · Madrid

Near and Middle East Section, SOAS University of London

School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS University of London

Arabic linguistics and contact-induced change, classical and modern Arabic literature, Qur'anic studies and early Arabic historiography.

United Kingdom · London

Dipartimento Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali – ISO, Sapienza Università di Roma

Sapienza Università di Roma

Research on the languages and civilisations of Asia and Africa, including Arabic, Semitic philology and Arabic dialectology; publishes Rivista degli Studi Orientali.

Italy · Rome

Dipartimento Asia Africa e Mediterraneo, Università di Napoli L'Orientale

Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale

Research in Arabic language, literature, dialectology and metrics within Asian, African and Mediterranean studies.

Italy · Naples

Abteilung für Islamwissenschaft und Nahostsprachen, University of Bonn

Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften (IOA), University of Bonn

Works on texts, languages and cultures of the Arabic-, Persian- and Turkish-speaking regions, teaches Arabic as a BA minor, and has a professorship of Near Eastern languages (Arabic).

Germany · Bonn

Departamento de Estudios Semíticos, Universidad de Granada

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Granada

Department with an Arabic and Islamic Studies section and research groups on contemporary Arab studies and Arabic didactics.

Spain · Granada

Department of Semitic and Arabic Studies, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)

Institute of Oriental Studies, ELTE

Research in Semitic philology, Arabic studies, Sufism and Andalusian culture.

Hungary · Budapest

Institut für Orientalistik, Universität Wien

Universität Wien

Arabic linguistics and comparative dialectology (incl. Arabic in southern Turkey); offers an MA in Arabic Linguistics.

Austria · Vienna

Département Études arabes, Inalco

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco)

Teaches Standard Arabic and Maghrebi and Eastern Arabic varieties, with their literature and linguistics, at BA and MA level; over 1,000 students and 80 teachers.

France · Paris

Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Research and teaching in Arabic linguistics, Arabic literature and Islamic studies up to PhD.

United States · Washington, DC

Departamento de Estudios Árabes e Islámicos y Estudios Orientales, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Research lines include the Arabic language, Moroccan Arabic, Arabic–Spanish translation and Arabic literature.

Spain · Madrid

Кафедра арабской филологии, Институт стран Азии и Африки МГУ

Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Department of Arabic language and literature within the Philology Division, combining teaching and research.

Russia · Moscow

Department of Oriental Languages and Intercultural Communication, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Since 2016 has trained BA translators in Arabic and English and teaches Arabic as a second foreign language at MA level, alongside Chinese and Japanese.

Ukraine · Kharkiv

Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

Teaches Arabic at undergraduate level and researches Arabic literature, medieval Hebrew–Arabic linguistic thought and Judaeo-Arabic.

United Kingdom · Cambridge

Katedra Blízkého východu, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Research on Middle Eastern languages, incl. a lexicographic database of Bedouin dialects and Arabic dialect studies.

Czech Republic · Prague

Department of Arabic Philology, Saint Petersburg State University

Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Saint Petersburg State University

Arabic grammar and phonology, Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian and Saudi dialects, and classical Arabic documents, in the tradition of the Rosen–Krachkovsky school.

Russia · Saint Petersburg

Department of Arabic Philology, Kazan Federal University

Institute of International Relations (Oriental Studies), Kazan Federal University

Continues the Kazan school of Arabic studies (since 1807), with work on cultural linguistics, Egyptian Arabic, reading Arabic manuscripts and the Arabic poetry of Transoxania.

Russia · Kazan

Department of Middle Eastern & Asian Languages & Cultures, University of Malta

Faculty of Arts, University of Malta

Research on Arabic dialectology, Qur'anic lexicology, Arabic sociolinguistics and Arabic–Maltese links; offers a research MA in Arabic.

Malta · Msida

Lehrstuhl für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft, Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten, LMU Munich

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)

A chair working on Arabic philology, Arabic papyrology and digital Arabic teaching, with BA, MA and doctoral study.

Germany · Munich

Katedra Arabistyki i Islamistyki, Uniwersytet Warszawski

Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw

Research on classical and modern Arabic literature, Arabic linguistics and dialectology, and Arab-Islamic culture.

Poland · Warsaw

Lehrstuhl für Arabistik und Semitistik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Arabic within the Semitic languages; responsible for the comparative-Semitic part of a historical Arabic dictionary with AUB, a Greek–Arabic dictionary of medieval translations, and the online Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics.

Germany · Erlangen

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford

University of Oxford

Research in Arabic language, literature and civilisation; home of the Laudian Chair of Arabic (1636).

United Kingdom · Oxford

Escuela de Estudios Árabes (EEA-CSIC)

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

CSIC research institute in Granada for the history of Islam, medieval Spain, al-Andalus and Muslim Granada; Islamic architecture and archaeology; Arabic linguistics; and the manuscripts of al-Andalus. Its research groups include Philology, Historiography and Textual Criticism, and the Laboratory of Urban Archaeology and Architecture (LAAC).

Spain · Granada

Escuela de Traductores de Toledo

Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

Research centre on Arabic/Hebrew–Spanish translation, training translators and publishing translated texts.

Spain · Toledo

Centre d'études orientales – Institut orientaliste de Louvain (CIOL)

UCLouvain

Oriental philology, including premodern Arabic texts and Copto-Arabic historiography.

Belgium · Louvain-la-Neuve

Centro de Estudios Árabes Eugenio Chahuán, Universidad de Chile

Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad de Chile

Teaches Arabic and researches Arabic as a second language and classical Arab studies; publishes Revista de Estudios Árabes.

Chile · Santiago

Centrul de Studii Arabe, Universitatea din București (Center for Arab Studies)

Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest

Research on Classical and dialectal Arabic, Arabic literature and Islamic thought; publishes Romano-Arabica since 2001.

Romania · Bucharest

Centre de recherches Moyen-Orient Méditerranée (CERMOM)

Inalco

Research unit on Middle Eastern literatures and languages, including Arabic linguistics and dialects such as Levantine.

France · Paris

Institut de recherches et d'études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans (IREMAM)

CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université

Multidisciplinary institute with a research pole on Arabic linguistics, sociolinguistics and dialectology.

France · Aix-en-Provence

Semitistik – Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, Universität Heidelberg

Universität Heidelberg

Semitic studies with a long tradition in the dialectology of Arabic and Neo-Aramaic.

Germany · Heidelberg

Instytut Orientalistyki, Uniwersytet Jagielloński – Arabic Studies

Jagiellonian University

Research and teaching in Modern Standard Arabic and its dialects, in literature and linguistics.

Poland · Kraków

Institut für Arabistik, Freie Universität Berlin

Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin

Arabic literature from pre-Islamic times to the present; runs the Kalila wa-Dimna project, the kalimat project on key terms of the Arabic manuscript tradition, and an edition of Aristotle's Poetics in Arabic and other translations.

Germany · Berlin

Seminar für Arabistik/Islamwissenschaft I, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Research on classical and modern Arabic literature, Arabic theatre, hadith and Arabic-Islamic philosophy.

Germany · Göttingen

Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of Exeter

University of Exeter

Multidisciplinary institute including linguists, with strength in Arabic language and literature.

United Kingdom · Exeter

Institut für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft, Universität Münster

Universität Münster

Arabic language and literature research, incl. an edition of Ibn Nubātah's works and an Encyclopedia of Arabic Stylistic Devices.

Germany · Münster

Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino (IPOCAN)

Research institute on the Arab and Muslim world, with a specialised library and Arabic-studies journals.

Italy · Rome

Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo (ILC-CSIC)

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Studies Mediterranean languages and cultures from original texts; its Jewish and Islamic Studies department covers Arabic sources.

Spain · Madrid