Prof. Arik Sadan
Master’s, Arabic Language and Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Bachelor’s, Arabic Linguistics, Language, and Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Arik Sadan is a scholar of the Arabic language, specializing in Arabic grammatical thought, in classical, modern, and spoken Arabic linguistics, in Judeo-Arabic biblical interpretation, and in manuscripts in these fields. He was a research fellow in the Biblia Arabica project (see https://biblia-arabica.com) and, since 2015, has been a lecturer in the Department for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Shalem College.
Prof. Sadan holds a PhD in Arabic language and literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his first postdoctoral project at the University of Paris and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. His first book, The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought, is considered authoritative in his field. His two latest books, published in 2020 and 2025, summarize 13 years of research devoted to the translation and commentary into Judeo-Arabic by the tenth-century Karaite Yefet ben ‘Eli of the Book of Job.
Selected Publications
Books
The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben 'Eli the Karaite on the Book of Job (Karaite Texts and Studies) (Volume 1: The Judaeo-Arabic Text, Leiden: Brill, 2020; Volume 2: The English Translation, Leiden: Brill, 2025).
A Critical Edition of the Grammatical Treatise Taḏkirat Jawāmiʿ al-ʾAdawāt by Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Maḥmūd (Arabische Studien Series), Tilman Seidensticker, and Hartmut Bobzin, eds. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012).
The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics), Aaron. D. Rubin and Ahmad Al-Jallad, eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
Articles
"Differences and Similarities between Christian and Karaite Translations of the Bible into Arabic: The Case of the Book of Job," In: Arabica sunt, non leguntur... Studies on the Arabic Versions of the Bible in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Tradition, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 70 (2018), 1–2, pp. 7–33.
"Arab Grammarians’ Theories vs. Actual Linguistic Usage: The Naṣb (subjunctive) Mood as Used in al-Iṣfahānī’s Kitāb al-Aġānī," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 43 (2016), pp. 209-218.
"Sībawayhi’s and Later Grammarians’ Usage of ḥadīṯs as a Grammatical Tool," In: The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics 2: Kitāb Sībawayhi: Transmission & Interpretation, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 83 (2015), pp. 171–183.
"The Meaning of the Technical Term Jawāb in Arabic Grammar," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 37 (2010), pp. 129-137.
"The Technical Terms Xiffa and Ṯiqal in the Usage of the Arabic Grammarians," Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik 48 (2008), pp. 58-74.