Bilal Orfali, a Lebanese researcher and academic, is the Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, and Director of the Center for Arts and Humanities and the university’s publishing house. Specializing in Arabic and Islamic literatures, as well as the Qur’an, Sufism, and narratology, he is the handling editor of al-Markaz: Journal of Arabic Studies, associate editor of The Journal of Arabic Literature, editor of al-Abhath, editor of the “Sheikh Zayed Series for Arabic and Islamic Texts,” and co-editor of Brill’s “Texts and Studies on the Qur’an” and “Handbook of Sufi Studies” series. Author and editor of nearly thirty books in Arabic and English, Professor Orfali currently serves on the distinguished advisory boards of several international journals, book series, and projects in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
