Arabic studies in Sao Paolo

There's no Shakespeare connection per se (yet), but I thought I'd share my excitement that my husband and I got to meet two of our Brazilian counterparts during a recent family trip to Sao Paolo. Here we are (right) with Mamede Mustafa Jarouche and Safa Abu-Chahla Jubran of the University of Sao Paolo's Department of Oriental Letters.

Mamede works on the sources of the 1001 Nights and has published (rather, is publishing; a third volume is in progress) the first Arabic-to-Portugese translation of the Nights. Safa teaches Arabic and writes on linguistics, contemporary Arab poetry, and Hermes Trismegistus' Treasure of Alexander. They are two of the people behind TIRAZ, a new USP-based interdisciplinary journal of Arabic studies.