Osama Eshera

Assistant Research Professor
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies
University of Maryland

About

I am a specialist in the history of philosophy and science in the premodern Islamic world. I received my Ph.D. in 2022 from McGill University's Institute of Islamic Studies, where my supervisor was Prof. Robert Wisnovsky. Prior to that, I received my M.S. and B.S., respectively, from University of Virginia and University of Maryland.

Research

My research focuses primarily on the philosophy of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037), its roots in the 8th–9th century Arabic reception of ancient Greek thought, its development over the course of his career, and its reception in the medieval Islamic world. My doctoral dissertation is comprised of a comparative philological study and critical editions of two interlinked philosophical works by Avicenna: al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād (The Provenance and Destination) and the treatise on Ilāhiyyāt (Metaphysics) within Avicenna's philosophical summa Kitāb al-Najāt (The Salvation). Publications of the critical editions, along with English translations and introductions, are forthcoming.

Part of my work is dedicated to developing digital methods and tools for historical and philological research. Along this line, I am co-Director of the Dabīrān Project and Assistant Director of the Open Islamicate Texts Initiative's Arabic-script OCR Catalyst Project (OpenITI AOCP Phase II). Prior to this, I worked for the Post-classical Islamic Philosophical Database Initiative (PIPDI) and the Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI).

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

  1. "Zayn al-ʿArab al-Miṣrī's Completion and Subsequent Abridgment of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Šīrāzī's Commentary on Ibn Sīnā's Qānūn" (with F. Savadi). Arabica 72, no. 3 (2025): 297–337. DOI: 10.1163/15700585-202416906.
  2. "Reading Avicenna in Ayyubid Damascus: The Corrected and Glossated Manuscripts of Faḫr al-Dīn Ibn al-Sāʿātī." Oriens 53, no. 1 (2025): 1–35. DOI: 10.1163/18778372-12340040.
  3. "Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of Sāwī's Baṣāʾir" (with F. Savadi and R. Wisnovsky). In Logic, Soul, and World. Essays in Arabic Philosophy in Honor of Tony Street, edited by A. Q. Ahmed, M. S. Zarepour, and R. Strobino, 450–498. Leiden: Brill, 2025. DOI: 10.1163/9789004727281_017.
  4. "Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī's Commentary on Ibn Sīnā's Qānūn in Historical Context: Edition and Translation of the Preface." Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 11, nos. 2–3 (2023): 331–388. DOI: 10.1163/2212943x-bja10008.
  5. "Philosophical and Philological Debates on Kulliyyāt I.1.ii of Ibn Sīnā's Qānūn: From Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī to Quṭb al-Dīn al-Šīrāzī." Oriens 51, nos. 3–4 (2023): 197–281. DOI: 10.1163/18778372-12340025.
  6. "On the Early Collections of the Works of Ġiyāṯ al-Dīn Jamšīd al-Kāšī." Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 13, no. 2 (2022): 225–262. DOI: 10.1163/1878464X-01302001.
  7. "The Five Arabic Revisions of Autolycus' On the Moving Sphere (Proposition VII)" (with S. Nikfahm-Khubravan). Tarikh-e Elm: Iranian Journal for the History of Science 16, no. 2 (2019): 7–71. DOI: 10.22059/jihs.2019.281965.371485.

Reviews

  1. "Review of al-Ṯurayyā Project: A Gazetteer and A Geospatial Model of the Early Islamic World." Reviews in Digital Humanities 5, no. 10 (2024). DOI: 10.21428/3e88f64f.af570b4c.

Contact

oeshera (at) umd (dot) edu

osama (dot) eshera (at) mail (dot) mcgill (dot) ca

Links

ORCID • Academia • ResearchGate • Google Scholar

Last updated: 2025 July 27