University / institution contact details
Position: Lecturer/Professor
Dept. of Arabic, Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam)
Leerstoelgroep Arabische taal en cultuur (Dept. of Arabic)
P.C. Hoofthuis
Spuistraat 134
Amsterdam
1012 VB
Netherlands
Teaches (T) and/or researches (R) in:
2. History of the Jewish People: R
12: Medieval: R
15: Regional and National (i.e. in North Africa, Greece, Eastern Europe, Germany, Middle East, Spain, India, South America, United States, etc): R
6. Literature (other than Biblical and Rabbinic): R
43: Medieval (including scientific, poetry, Genizah studies): R
47: Sephardic: R
7. Languages: R
51: Hebrew: R
54: Arabic, including Judeo-Arabic: R
56: Ladino: R
Description
Born in Voorburg 1947, I studied at Leiden University Semitic and Romance Languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish), where I passed my “doctoraal” examination in Arabic in 1973 and in Italian in 1974. I received my Ph. D. degree in Literature in 1988 at Amsterdam University with my dissertation Arabic Tradition and Hebrew Innovation: Arabic Themes in Hebrew Andalusian Poetry.
I was NWO researcher at Leiden University from 1974-1976, taught Hebrew at Nijmegen University in 1976-1977, and I teach Arabic at Amsterdam University from 1977 on.
My research is concentrated on Arabic and Hebrew medieval poetry in Muslim Spain (al-Andalus) and in connection and comparison with the medieval Romance literatures of Southern Europe (Spain, Provence and Italy). I serve on the editorial board of The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World (formerly Medieval Iberian Peninsula) a series published by Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, from 2001 on.
I regularly lecture in Congresses and Symposia in and outside The Netherlands organized by the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, the Judeo-Arabic Society, the European Association of Jewish Studies, the Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes and others. I am the present day treasurer of the UEAI.