Geoffrey Khan Explained

Honorific Prefix:Professor
Honorific Suffix:FBA
Geoffrey Khan
Birth Date:1958 2, df=y
Birth Place:Middlesbrough, England
Workplaces:University of Cambridge
Alma Mater:School of Oriental and African Studies
Thesis Title:Extraposition and Pronominal Agreement in Semitic Languages
Thesis Year:1984

Geoffrey Allan Khan FBA (born 1 February 1958) is a British linguist and philologist of Semitic languages. He has held the post of Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge since 2012.[1] Considered one of the world's leading experts on Aramaic, he has published grammars for numerous Aramaic dialects and he leads the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database .[2] His other research has included Biblical Hebrew and medieval Arabic documents.

Biography

Khan was born and raised in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire.[3] [4] His mother was English whereas his father was South Asian of Iranian descent. His paternal grandfather was an Ismaili Muslim who married a Catholic, and Geoffrey's father went to a Jesuit school in Bombay. One of his paternal great-grandmothers was the daughter of a Welsh Wesleyan missionary, and Khan also has Native American ancestry. His parents separated when he was quite young and he was raised by his mother and grandmother. He went to a "rough" comprehensive school where he suffered from racial abuse, and "took refuge in learning languages".[5] [6]

In 1984, he gained his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a thesis entitled Extraposition and Pronominal Agreement in Semitic Languages. He became a researcher at the Cambridge University Library (1983-1993), working on the Cairo Genizah manuscripts. He then joined the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in 1993. In 2002, he was appointed Professor of Semitic Philology in Cambridge.[7]

His main area of research is in linguistics studies of Hebrew and Aramaic while the focus of his Aramaic research is on North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects.[8]

Honours

Works

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Geoffrey Allan KAHN . https://archive.today/20130215194755/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/k/20228/Geoffrey%20Allan+KHAN.aspx . dead . 15 February 2013 . Debretts . 23 January 2013 .
  2. Web site: Archived copy . 7 February 2018 . 8 February 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004255/https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/index-new.php . dead . .Web site: How to Save a Dying Language . Ariel . Sabar . February 2013 . 11 February 2013 . Smithsonian Magazine . 27 January 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130127184700/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/How-to-Save-a-Dying-Language-187947061.html . dead .
  3. Web site: Weam Namou. Interview with Prof. Geoffrey Khan from University of Cambridge . YouTube . Jan 2021.
  4. Web site: Genizah Fragments Volume 6. The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit. 13 March 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20110922092715/http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GF/6/. 22 September 2011. dead.
  5. Web site: The scholar whose career began in the books section of his local newsagent . This Cambridge Life . https://web.archive.org/web/20180601074628/https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-scholar-whose-career-began-in-the-books-section-of-his-local-newsagent-dfaada89f095 . Jun 1, 2018 . May 31, 2018.
  6. Web site: Terence Handley MacMath . Interview: Geoffrey Khan, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge . Church Times . https://web.archive.org/web/20211103180512/https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/1-february/features/interviews/interview-geoffrey-khan-regius-professor-of-hebrew-cambridge . Nov 3, 2021 . Feb 1, 2019. live.
  7. Web site: Hebrew & Semitic Studies Teaching Staff . University of Cambridge . 13 March 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120316112811/http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/general_info/biographies/hebrew/Khan.htm . 16 March 2012 .
  8. Web site: The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database Project . University of Cambridge . 2023-10-07.
  9. Web site: Professor Geoffrey Khan (Staff Profile(. Cambridge University Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies . 4 December 2017 . 24 November 2022.

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