Our Team
Sarah Bowen Savant
Professor, AKU-ISMC, and Principle Investigator of KITAB
Professor Savant is a cultural historian specialising in the Middle East and Iran ca. 600-1500. Read more…
Maxim Romanov
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Romanov is a Universitätsassistent für Digital Humanities at the Institute for History, University of Vienna. Read more…
Abdul Rahman Azzam
Sira Project
With a BA and Dphil from Oxford University, Dr Azzam’s focus is on the development of Islamic thought from the medieval to the modern Muslim world and the interaction between traditional Islam and modernity. Read more…
Aslisho Qurboniev
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Aslisho Qurboniev is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at KITAB working on the Islamic West, including medieval Maghrib, al-Andalus and Sicily.. Read more…
David Smith
Sira Project
David Smith is an Associate Professor in Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science. Read more…
Gowaart Van Den Bossche
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Gowaart Van Den Bossche studied History and Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ghent University and the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. Read more…
Hamid Reza Hakimi
Annotator of Arabic Texts
Responsible for annotating Arabic Texts for the KITAB corpus . Read more…
Kevin Jaques
Sira Project
Kevin Jaques is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. Read more…
Masoumeh Seydi
Digital Lead
Masoumeh Seydi is KITAB’s Digital Lead. While completing her PhD at the Institute of Informatics, University of Leipzig. Read more…
Mathew Barber
Research Associate - Digital Sira Project
Mathew Barber is a PhD Candidate at the department of Middle Eastern Studies in the University of Edinburgh. Read more…
Nadia Bhaloo
Administrative Assistant
Nadia Bhaloo is an Administrative Assistant for the KITAB project. She brings extensive experience of finance and budget through her association with various organisations in the capacity of Financial Officer.
Peter Verkinderen
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Peter Verkinderen is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at KITAB working on the central regions of the Islamic lands. Read more…
Ryan Muther
Sira Project
Ryan Muther is a PhD student in the Computer Science program at Northeastern University advised by Professor David Smith. Read more…
Simon P. Loynes
Annotator for Arabic Texts
Responsible for annotating Arabic Texts for the KITAB corpus. Read more…
Sohail Merchant
Technical Lead
Responsible for managing the infrastructure and developing the application architecture for KITAB. Read more…
KITAB’s team is supported by many members of the AKU computing staff, including:
- Mohammad Fahd
- Eugene O’Donnel
- Jonathan Hughes
- Omer Manya
- Rafay Hassan