Bilal Orfali
Judge 2025

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 Centre for Arts and Humanities and the university’s publishing house. He specialises in Arabic and Islamic literatures, as well as the Qur'an, Sufism, and narratology. He is editor of various publications: Al-Markaz Journal of Arabic Studies; Al-Abhath Journal; Texts and Studies on the Qur’an; Handbook of Sufi Studies; and the Sheikh Zayed Series for Arabic and Islamic Texts and Studies. He is an associate editor of The Journal of Arabic Literature, published by Brill, and an editor of The Library of Arabic Literature, a project of New York University Abu Dhabi. He serves on the advisory boards of several international journals, book series, and projects in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. He is author and editor of more than two dozen books in Arabic and English.