J.E. Montgomery is Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic. He studied Arabic and Ancient Greek at Glasgow University (1980-1984), spent two years on an unfinished DPhil at Oxford (1984-1986), where he was a Snell Exhibitioner at Balliol College before taking up a lectureship at Glasgow (1986-1992), where he decided to do a different PhD which he submitted just before the birth of his daughter Natasha in 1990. Senior Lectureships at Oslo and Leeds preceded his move to Cambridge in 1997.
Professor Montgomery is currently on sabbatical, and is not accepting postgraduate students.
Professor Montgomery is currently on sabbatical
My long-term project is to explore the third/ninth century through the writings of ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868-9). This is complemented by a project to edit and translate the early tenth century historiographical masterpiece by al-Ashʿarī, The Doctrines of the Islamicists.
My other major interest revolves around literary translation and the translation of classical Arabic poetry in particular. A two volume edition and translation of the hunting poems of Abū Nuwās and Ibn al-Muʿtazz is in preparation, and my edition of al-Shantamarī's recension of al-Aṣmāʿī's collection of the poetry of ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād al-ʿAbsī is due to appear next year. This will accompany a collaborative translation of the poems by the Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature and will be published by New York University Press as part of the Library of Arabic Literature.
Current PhD students
| Gabrielle Russo: The Turkic military guard in third/ninth-century Arabic praise writing |
