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Aramaic in All Its Forms

In 2024, with support from the Polonsky Foundation, ILARA is hosting a series of twelve themed talks as part of our ongoing commitment to ancient scripts and languages. These talks will explore the diverse forms of Aramaic, tracing their historical usage and evolution from the first millennium BC to the present day. For more information, click here.

2024 programme

Find all the details about the speakers and the content of each lecture in the brochures below:

Muriel Debié (EPHE-PSL, Orient & Méditerranée), Inaugural talk

Muriel Debié holds the position of Director of Studies in Oriental Christianity at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL and is a member of the steering committee of ILARA.

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet (Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Orient & Méditerranée), “Old Aramaic”

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet is an Emerita Research Director at the CNRS within the Orient & Méditerranée laboratory (UMR 8167) and a member of the Institut (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres).

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet (Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Orient & Méditerranée), “Imperial Aramaic”

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet is an Emerita Research Director at the CNRS within the Orient & Méditerranée laboratory (UMR 8167) and a member of the Institut (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres).

David Taylor (University of Oxford), “Biblical and Dead Sea Aramaic”

David Taylor a professor of Aramaic and Syriac at the University of Oxford.

Jean-Baptiste Yon (CNRS, HiSoMA), “Aramaic Varieties of Edessa, Palmyra and Hatra”

Jean-Baptiste Yon is a Research Director at the CNRS (HiSoMA, Lyon).



The recording will be available at a later time

Laïla Nehmé (CNRS, Orient & Méditerranée), “Nabataean Aramaic: Written (and Spoken?) Language of the Nabataeans from Syria to Arabia”

Laïla Nehmé, an archaeologist and epigraphist, is a Research Director at the CNRS.



The recording will be available at a later time

Flavia Ruani (IRHT-CNRS), “Western Syriac”

Flavia Ruani is a research fellow at the CNRS (Institute for Research and History of Texts, Paris-Aubervilliers).

The recording will be available at a later time

Geoffrey Herman (EPHE-PSL), “Jewish Aramaic in Late Antiquity”

Geoffrey Herman is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE-PSL), where he holds the chair in “Ancient Judaisms and Classical Rabbinic Literature.”

The recording will be available at a later time

Alain Desreumaux (CNRS), “The Christian Legacy of Aramaic in Palestine and Arabia”

Alain J. Desreumaux, Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS, member of the Ambrosian Academy of Milan and honorary president of the Syriac Studies Society, is a specialist in Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic.



The recording will be available at a later time

Pier Giorgio Borbone (University of Pisa), “Eastern Syriac from Mesopotamia to China”

Pier Giorgio Borbone was, until November 2023, a lecturer in Syriac and Hebrew at the University of Pisa.

The recording will be available at a later time

Charles G. Häberl (Rutgers University), “Mandaean”

Charles G. Häberl is a Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and President of the International Linguistic Association.

The recording will be available at a later time

Geoffrey Khan (Cambridge University), “Western and Eastern Neo-Aramaic”

Geoffrey Khan is the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge.



The “Aramaic in All Its Forms” themed talk series is organised by ILARA, with support from the Polonsky Foundation.