Career: Geert Jan van Gelder is Laudian Professor of Arabic in the Faculty of Oriental Studies in the University of Oxford and Fellow of St John’s College. His research interests include: classical Arabic literature, especially belles-lettres, poetry, poetics, rhetoric, and stylistics, literary criticism, and the history of literary genres. He is co-editor of the journal Middle Eastern Literatures incorporating Edebiyât (see url below).

Publications include: The Bad and the Ugly: Attitudes Towards Invective Poetry (Hija in Classical Arabic Literature) 1989, The Middle East And Europe: Encounters And Exchanges.(Orientations 1) (co-author) 1992, Eastward Bound: Dutch Ventures and Adventures in the Middle East (Orientations 2) (co-author) 1994, Poetry, Politics And Polemics (co-author) 1997, God’s Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature (co-author) 2000, A Descriptive Catalogue Of Oriental Manuscripts At St John's College, Oxford 2005, Close Relationships: Incest and Inbreeding in Classical Arabic Literature (Library of Middle East History) 2005, Takhyil: The Imaginary in Classical Arabic Poetics 1: Texts by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Marle Hammond 2007; numerous articles in professional journals

Contact details: Address: The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford , Pusey Lane, Oxford , OX1 2LE, England; Tel: +44 (0)1865 278200; Fax: +44 (0)1865 278190; Email: gerard.vangelder@orinst.ox.ac.uk ; Email: vgelder@server.orient.ox.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1475262x.asp/ .