Lecture | Reading group
Informal reading group on the early alphabet
- Date
- Monday 19 October 2026
- Time
- Location
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 2.138
On Monday, 19 October, Prof. Ahmad Al-Jallad (M.S. Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies, Ohio State University) will lead an informal reading group and take us through the most famous attestations of the early alphabet: the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions of the second millennium BCE. We will meet in the Aleph to Alpha project room, Herta Mohr 2.138, starting at 13:15. No preparation or registration is needed.
This reading group is organised by the From Aleph to Alpha project (Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)).
About the speaker
Professor Ahmad Al-Jallad holds the Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at The Ohio State University. An internationally recognized scholar of pre-Islamic Arabia, his research focuses on Arabian epigraphy, the history of the Arabic language, Semitic linguistics, and the cultures of the ancient Near East.
His latest book reconstructs the religion and rituals of Arabia’s pre-Islamic tribespeople: The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions. For more of Al-Jallad’s work, see his Academia.edu page.