Welcome to our August Guest Blogger: Ilyass Amharar

lyass Amharar is a Faculty Member in Arabic Language and Islamic Thought at the University of al-Qarawiyyin’s Muhammad VI Institute of Quranic Studies, Rabat. He holds a Habilitation to Supervise Research in Islamic Studies (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) and a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Aix-Marseille Université. An Agrégé d’arabe, he was previously senior advisor to Morocco’s Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs. His research centers on Ashʿarism, Malikism, and Islamic legal theory in medieval and early modern North Africa, particularly intellectual exchange between al-Andalus and the Maghreb. His publications include Langage et théologie chez Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (Gorgias Press, 2023) and Faire revivre l’ashʿarisme chez les Malékites (De Gruyter, 2026). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Philological Encounters (Brill) and directs the Islamic Sources monograph series. His digital humanities work includes developing Khaṭṭ GPT, a protocol for automated recognition of historical Arabic manuscript scripts.