# Faculty and Lecturers ## expand\_more [### Jesse Arlen ](/people/jesse-arlen) Lecturer in Armenian Studies Jesse S. Arlen is Lecturer in Armenian Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of many articles and book chapters relating to medieval religious literature and intellectual history, with particular attention to asceticism and mysticism. He is the... ![Jesse Arlen](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-06/Jesse%20Arlen%20edit.png?itok=O40FyDYI) [### Ali Asani (On Leave) ](/people/ali-asani) Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ali Asani is Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures. He has served as the Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard... ![asani](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/asani.jpg?itok=rZ6m4BLs) [### Abdul Bhat ](/people/abdul-bhat)Preceptor in Urdu and Indo-Persian Abdul Manan is a scholar of Islam, devotional literature, and material religion, specializing in Islamic discourses on poetry with a focus on the Persianate world. Urdu and Persian literature is at the heart of his teaching and research interests. At... ![Abdul Manan Bhat](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-06/Bhat.png?itok=Z_X3wakl) [### Nicholas Boylston (On Leave) ](/people/nicholas-boylston-0) Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Nicholas Boylston is a scholar of classical Persian literature and Persianate Islam. His research focuses on themes of diversity and unity in the writings of Sufis, philosophers and litterateurs from the Persianate world. He is currently completing a book... ![Nicholas Boylston](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/img_3423.jpeg?itok=VAMfxQCO) [### Shaye Cohen ](/people/shaye-jd-cohen) Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy (Emeritus) Professor Cohen is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University. This is one of the oldest and most distinguished professorships of Jewish studies in the... ![Shaye J.D. Cohen](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/cohen.jpg?itok=Gus-xWqa) [### Andrew Danielson (On Leave) ](/people/andrew-danielson) Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Andrew Danielson is a Levantine Archaeologist specializing in the first millennium BCE southern Levant. His work examines changes to sociopolitical organization and complexity, cross-cultural interaction, and identity negotiation. His work also engages... ![Andrew Danielson](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/danielson_harvard_bio.jpg?itok=MshLf01M) [### Céline Debourse ](/people/c%C3%A9line-debourse) Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Céline Debourse is an Assyriologist specializing in the languages, history, and religion of Babylonia during the first millennium BCE. Her work draws on a broad spectrum of methods and disciplines, from rigorous philological analysis, through historical... ![Céline Debourse](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/d_r_slyn_dbvrs_dr._celine_debourse_1.jpg?itok=Zf9KwihF) [### Khaled El-Rouayheb ](/people/khaled-el-rouayheb) James Richard Jewett Professor of Islamic Intellectual History Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies Khaled El-Rouayheb’s research interests include: the intellectual and cultural history of the Arabic-Islamic world in the Mamluk and early-Ottoman periods (1200-1800); the history of Arabic logic; Islamic theology and philosophy. He holds a BA in... ![El-Rouayheb](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-01/IMG_0038.jpeg?h=7481edf5&itok=Vzqc3Agz) [### Nalan Erbil ](/people/nalan-erbil)Preceptor in Modern Turkish person [### Anna Glenn ](/people/anna-glenn) Preceptor in Sumerian Anna Glenn is an Assyriologist specializing in the Sumerian language. Her work focuses on Sumerian literature, religion, and scribal culture of the early second millennium BCE. Starting from a strong philological basis, her research explores topics... ![aglenn_portrait.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/aglenn_portrait.jpg?itok=hMS5OF8p) [### William A. Graham ](/people/william-graham) Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies (Emeritus) William A. Graham was a teaching faculty member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1973-2018 and a member of the Faculty of Divinity 2002-2018. He served as Dean of Harvard Divinity School from 2002 to 2012, after which he returned to fulltime... ![graham3.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/graham3.jpg?itok=GfuTgwEk) [### William E. Granara ](/people/william-granara) Research Professor of the Practice of Arabic on the Gordon Gray Endowment William Granara is research professor of the practice of Arabic language and literature at Harvard University in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Comparative Literature. He is also the founding director of Harvard Summer... ![granara.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4571/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/nelcnew/files/granara.jpg?itok=qBXB9wM2) Show morerefresh