Islamicist · Agrégé in Arabic · Intellectual history of the MaghrebIlyass Amharar
Ilyass Amharar
Islamicist · Agrégé in Arabic

Ilyass Amharar

Islamicist and agrégé in Arabic, habilitated to supervise research (EPHE — Sorbonne). Series and journal editor at Brill, lecturer at al-Qarawiyyīn University, former adviser to the Moroccan Minister of Islamic Affairs.

  • HDRHabilitated to supervise research (EPHE — Sorbonne)
  • 1erAgrégation in Arabic, 2022
  • 6Books published
  • 5International awards
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Writing

The work

Aysar al-siyar fī akhbār khayr al-bashar — Dār al-Mayman, RiyadAwjaz al-siyar bi-l-riwāya al-maghribiyya — Dār al-Mayman, RiyadReviving Ashʿarism among the Mālikīs — De Gruyter, BerlinLanguage and Theology in Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī — Gorgias Press, PiscatawayAshʿarism in Fez, from the Almohads to the Marinids — Centre Jacques Berque, RabatThe Faith That Lifts the Soul — Brill, LeydeAbū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148) — Brill, Leyde — Handbook of Oriental StudiesMuḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) — Brill, Leyde — Handbook of Oriental StudiesThe Dalāʾil al-khayrāt in al-Qandūsī's hand — ADEVA, Graz — Collection du ministère des HabousKalām studies: new transdisciplinary research — Dawriyyat Namāʾ, n° 3 / vol. 8The Sīra in al-Andalus: Analysis of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Recension (543/1148) of Ibn Fāris’ Rāʾiʿ al-durar (395/1004) and Study of Its Transmission (VI-VIII/XII-XIV c.) — The Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, 2026D’Algésiras à Jérusalem : Foi et Spiritualité chez Abū ʿAbd Allāh al- Qurašī (544–599/1149–1203), un Soufi Maghrébin chez les Ayyoubides — Journal of Sufi Studies (Brill), 2026, pp. 37-68Doubts on Attribution of al-Waraqāt to Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī: Materials for Pseudepigrapha Studies in Islamic Context — Islamic Studies Journal (Brill), 2024. En libre accès au lien : https://doi.org/10.1163/29502276-20240011La transdisciplinarité dans les études de kalām : rétrospective non exhaustive — Dawriyyat Namāʾ, n°3, vol. 8, septembre 2024, pp. 160-169Du mālikisme dans les Nukat al-maḥṣūl d’Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (m. 543/1148). Contribution à l’histoire des uṣūl al-fiqh en Occident musulman — Etudes Asiatiques (De Gruyter), vol. 78, n°1, 2024, pp. 103-134L’origine du langage en islam : status quaestionis — Oriens (Brill)Autour d’un commentaire de la Muršida attribué à al-Sanūsī (895/1490) — Al- Qantara, vol. 43, n° 2 (2022), pp. 1-18Encore sur Abū ʿImrān al-Ǧawrāʾī et sa profession de foi (ʿaqīda) : nouvelles pistes et découverte d’un fragment inédit — Mélanges de l’Institut dominicain d’études orientales, 37 (2022), pp. 163-176La Maktaba Kattāniyya, entre prestige personnel et mémoire collective — in Sophie Bava, Farid El-Asri and Sabrina Mervin (eds.), Pérégrinations marocaines : construction, transmission et circulation des savoirs d’islam (XVIIIe-XXIe siècles), REMMM, 150 (December 2021, published online May 2022), pp. 109-124.La lecture du Coran sur le mort ou la résurgence d'un débat de l'ère classique. Traduction d'un extrait du Šarḥ al-Ṣudūr d'al-Suyūṭī (911-1508) — Le carnet de l’IRMC, 2022La Muršida au Moyen-Orient : d’une confusion à une découverte — Les carnets de l’IFPO, 2022À la découverte d’un Ašʿarite maghrébin inconnu : Abū ʿImrān al-Ǧawrāʾī et sa profession de foi (ʿaqīda) — Mélanges de l’Institut dominicain d’études orientales, 35 (2020), pp. 265-300Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī, between Islamic Studies and Social Sciences — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490): Thought, Transmission and ReceptionLa profession de foi intermédiaire d’al-Sanūsī (al-Wusṭā). Traduction — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and TranslationLa très courte profession de foi d’al-Sanūsī (Ṣughrā l-Ṣughrā). Traduction — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and TranslationLa minuscule profession de foi d’al-Sanūsī (Ṣughrā Ṣughrā l-Ṣughrā). Traduction — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and TranslationUne exégèse de la sourate al-Fātiḥa par al-Sanūsī. Traduction — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and TranslationInterprétation des passages problématiques à la fin du Ṣaḥīḥ d’al-Bukhārī (Taʾwīl mushkilāt al-Bukhārī) par al-Sanūsī. Traduction — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and Translation‘Yā aḥmaq !’ : une apologie virulente du soufisme écrite par al-Sanūsī — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490): Thought, Transmission and ReceptionLe secours à l’apprenti soufi. Traduction de l’épître d’al-Sanūsī Nuṣrat al-fuqayyir — dans Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490) in Text: Writings, Attributions and TranslationTrois poèmes soufis commentés par al-Sanūsī — in Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (895/1490). Volume II: texts, Leyde, Brill, coll. Handbook of Oriental StudiesMore than one hundred and fifty years of research on Ibn al-ʿArabī: assessment and perspectives — in Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148): Legacy and Transmission of the Thought of al-Ġazālī (505/1111) in al-Andalus, Leiden, Brill, Handbook of Oriental Studies, September 2024.De Bagdad à Séville : étude d’une généalogie du kalām, d’al-Ashʿarī à Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī — in Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148): Legacy and Transmission of the Thought of al-Ġazālī (505/1111) in al-Andalus, Leiden, Brill, Handbook of Oriental Studies, September 2024, pp. 146-176.De la gloire à l'exil, le parcours tragique de ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī (1883-1962) — in Augustin Jomier and Sabrina Mervin (eds.), Savants musulmans du Maroc, Marseille, Diacritiques Éditions, May 2023, pp. 181-197.Uṣūl al-fiqh fī Išbīlyā wa Qurṭuba fī awāʾil al-qarn al-sādis, Nukat al-Maḥṣūl li-Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148) namūḏaǧan — in al-Madrasa al-uṣūliyya bi-l-Maġrib wa l-Andalus: al-aʿlām, al-qaḍāyā wa l-ḫaṣāʾiṣ, ed. Biṭār and Idʿīkal, Rabat, Dār al-ḥadīṯ al-ḥasaniyya Press (al-Qarawiyyīn University), 2023, I, pp. 249-279.Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī bayn al-dirāsāt al-istišrāqiyya wa l-ʿarabiyya — in Biṭār and Tawrātī (eds.), Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī al-Maʿāfirī: ḫizānat al-ʿulūm wa ṣilat al-Maġrib bi l-Mašriq, Oujda, Mohammed I University Press, 2022, pp. 251-260.Avec Jean N. Druel, « ‘A Little Yesterday’: The “Canonical” text of Sībawayhi’s teaching — « A Little Yesterday » : The “Canonical” Text of Sībawayhi's Teaching Confronted to Two Unedited Manuscripts of the Kitāb — with Jean N. Druel, in Manuel Sartori and Francesco Binaghi (eds.), The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics V. Kitāb Sībawayhi, The Critical Theory, Leiden, E. J. Brill, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 107, pp. 37-51.Ḥawl šarḥ li al-Muršida mansūb li l-Sanūsī: ʿarḍ wa taḥlīl — (in Arabic), in Ǧamāl al-Baḫṭī (ed.), Al-Fikr al-ašʿarī min al-Marīniyyīn ilā al-Saʿdiyyīn, Rabat, Rābiṭa Muḥammadiyya Press, 2024.Pourquoi Ibn ‘Asākir (620/1219) n'est pas l'auteur de la Muršida? — in Aziz Abou Chraa (ed.), Perspectives of Research on History of Thought in the Islamic West. Philosophy, Sufism and Jurisprudence, works dedicated to the Moroccan thinker Dr Abdelmajid Assghayyir, Kenitra, Markaz Rawāfid, 2019 (2 vols.), II, pp. 606-616.Suleiman, Farid, Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God, Leyde ; Boston : Brill, 2024, x+1-390 pp. — Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, n° 40 (2026)Bilal Orfali, Lina Jammal (eds), Al-Bishārah wa-l-nidhārah fī taʿbīr al-ruʾyā (The Glad Tidings and Warnings in the Interpretation of Dreams). Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Language Centre, 578 pages, — Journal of Arabic Literature, Brill, 2024Shihadeh, Ayman, and Thiele, Jan (eds), Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ashʿarism East and West, Leyde; Boston: Brill, 2020, x+1-440 pp. — Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, 2024Bachir Diagne, Souleymane Bachir (dir.), Religion et spiritualité, Strasbourg, Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2021, 208 p. — Revue des sciences religieuses, 2023Messner, François (dir.), Le statut des ministres du culte musulman en France. Études comparatives et proposition d’une charte nationale (Société, Droit et Religion), Strasbourg, Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2021, 283 p. — Revue des sciences religieuses, 2023Hassan, Laura, Ash‘arism encounters Avicennism. Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī on Creation, New Jersey, Gorgias Press, 2020, 317 p. — Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, 2022Abū ʿImrān al-Jawrāʾī — Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition (EI3), BrillʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī — Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition (EI3), Brill
2026

Awjaz al-siyar bi-l-riwāya al-maghribiyya

أوجز السير بالرواية المغربية: رائع الدرر ورائق الزهر في أخبار خير البشر

Critical edition of Ibn Fāris's sīra abridgement in its Maghribī recension, with Ibn Diḥya's marginal glosses. Saudi reissue after the Cairo edition sold out (Dār al-Ṣāliḥ, 2025).

Dār al-Mayman, Riyad

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Awjaz al-siyar bi-l-riwāya al-maghribiyya — Dār al-Mayman, Riyad
Gallery

On air

AssadissaThawābit

Producer and presenter

Twenty-six episodes on the religious history of Morocco, on Moroccan national television.

France CultureQuestions d'Islam

Ashʿarite doctrine

A programme on the theological school that shaped Sunnī thought, and what it teaches about reason and revelation.

Al Jazeera MubasherSheikh Hamad Award ceremony

Translation prize awarded in Doha

Coverage of the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding ceremony.

Radio Monte Carlo DoualiyaCafé Show

“Uṣūl al-fiqh is daunting — let the young take it on”

An interview on legal theory, its forbidding reputation, and why it is worth entering.

Chaîne Inter, MoroccoScholars of Morocco

Islamic studies columns

Resident specialist for a series of columns: Abū ʿImrān al-Jawrāʾī, Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, and Fāṭima al-Fihriyya for International Women's Day.

French Bishops' ConferenceStudy day

“Muslim believers and the critical study of their tradition”

A meeting held as part of the training programme of the French Bishops' Conference.

Research areas

Conferences and lectures

  1. Georgetown University

    “Theology in Arabic” seminar

    Paper: “Challenging the Myth of Mālikī Anti-Kalām”.

  2. University of Geneva

    Crossed Horizons: Islam and the paths of coexistence

    Paper: “A plea against antisemitism in seventeenth-century Fez? Al-Mayyāra's Counsel to the Deceived”.

  3. Harvard University

    The Qandūsī Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt

    Facsimile presentation of the Dalāʾil al-khayrāt in al-Qandūsī's hand. The study day was also held at Chicago's Seldon Institute.

  4. Collège de France

    History and the Qurʾān

    Conference convened by François Déroche. Paper: “The role of the Meccan Qurʾān in legitimising kalām according to the early Ashʿarites”.

  5. Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

    International Quranic Studies Association

    Paper: “Quranic Abrogation and Uṣūl al-fiqh: Unraveling Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī's Legacy”.

  6. Fscire, Palermo

    European Academy of Religion

    Paper: “Theory and Transmission of Knowledge (ʿilm) in the History of Islamic Thought”.

  7. Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich

    International Society for the History of Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy

    Paper: “Between Islamic theology and Hellenistic philosophy: al-Juwaynī and divine knowledge of particulars”.

  8. Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat

    Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī: career, legacy and transmission

    International conference he convened. Paper: “From Baghdad to Seville: the Ashʿarite lineage of Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī”.

Awards and distinctions

2025

Naʿt al-Sharīf International Poetry Competition — second prize

IRCICA · Organisation of Islamic Cooperation · Municipality of Konya

A competition in five languages marking the 1500th anniversary of the Prophet's birth, under the patronage of the Turkish Presidency. Second prize in the French category.

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2025

World Sīra Conference Prize

Tayba Centre, Kerala (India)

Awarded at the world conference devoted to the biography of the Prophet.

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2025

Sheikh Zayed Book Award — long list

Abu Dhabi

Longlisted for one of the Arab world's foremost literary awards.

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