AIDA SHAHLAR GASIMOVA

(1957)

Orientalist

Aida Qasimova was born on 2 June 1957. In 1980, she graduated with honors from Azerbaijan State University, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Arabic Philology Section. She started her working career as a senior laboratory assistant at the Department of Arabic Language. She defended a PhD thesis in 1989, achieving a ScD degree in 2001. In 1987, she took a teaching job at the Department of Arabic Philology, being then promoted to a senior teacher in 2003, associate professor in 2004 and professor in 2005. In 1998, she received Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Prize for Imam Al Bukhari grandchildren. In 2013, she won Global Faculty program and spent two years at Duke University, USA, as a visiting professor. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics within Classical Arabic Literature, Arabic short picaresque stories – so-called maqamat, poetry of al-Mutanabbi, Mental-Spiritual State of pre-Islamic Arabs, Qur’anic Symbolism in Azeri Turkic Sufi Poetry.  She is currently working on two projects “Qur’anic Symbolism in Depiction of the Face in Azeri Turkic Sufi Poetry” and “Categories and Images of Beauty in Azeri Turkic Sufi Poetry”. She has numerous academic publications in several languages (Arabic, Russian, English and Azerbaijani) including articles in prestigious peer-reviewed European academic journals. She participated in international conferences and workshops, and visited a number of world-famous institutions including Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. Aida Qasimova`s research interests lie in Arabic and Azerbaijani literature. She has authored six books and over 90 papers. She has supervised four PhD students to completion.