Bruno Halflants Editor

Godefroid de Callataÿ is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the University of Louvain, Belgium. He has specialised in the history of Arabic sciences and philosophy and is the author of numerous articles and books on the Brethren of Purity, including his French translations of Epistles 7, 28, and 36, and his latest volume: Ikhwan al-Safa': A Brotherhood of Idealists on the Fringe of Orthodox Islam, for the 'Makers of the Muslim World' series (Oxford: Oneworld, 2005). In addition, he is also directing a project on Arabic and Latin encyclopaedias of the Middle Ages at the University of Louvain. Having first embarked on a Civil Engineer career shich led him to work for many years in Arab countries of the Middle-East, Bruno Halflants joined the University of Louvain in 1995, where he obtained the Master degree in Arabic and Islamic studies. Established there as a scientific research worker, in 2007 he published an extensive grammar of Middle Arabic, supported by an original edition of the oldest known manuscript of one of the longest tales from the Thousand and One Nights. He has more recently joined the IIS Ikhwân project in order to prepare the critical edition of both the short and the long versions of Epistle 52 of the Brethren of Purity.