Associate Members

Cécile Bonmariage specialises in pre-modern Islamic intellectual history, more specifically history of philosophy and speculative mysticism in the Islamic context. Her publications reflect a predilection for the Avicennian and Akbarī traditions, and for the post-classical period. Other aspects of her work include research on translations from Greek into Arabic, the influence of Avicenna’s theories in a broader milieu, as well as practical aspects of the manuscript culture in Islamicate societies, and occasional detours into editing magical recipes based on the science of letters.

Bruno Halflants was involved in various major projects during his first career as a civil engineer. He has cultivated his interest in Arabic since 1978, focusing on Arabic poetry and metrics, and in 1998 he obtained a master’s degree in Arabic. In 2007, he published Le Conte du Portefaix et des Trois Jeunes Femmes, a study of Middle Arabic in the 1001 Nights, with an original edition of the tale’s earliest-known manuscript. Further to this, he has participated in several conferences and seminars and has contributed to Autour de la Langue Arabe, a Festschrift volume in the Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain. In 2011, together with Godefroid de Callataÿ, he has published in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series (Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies) the edition and the annotated translation of the short version of the Epistle ‘On Magic’ (52a). Together with Godefroid de Callataÿ and Sébastien Moureau, he is currently working on the long version of the same epistle (52b).

Marion Dapsens is a doctoral student at the University of Louvain. In her research, she focuses on the occult sciences and the history of alchemy. After her humanities in Schola Nova, she studied classical and oriental languages and literature at the University of Louvain and at the Università degli Studi di Bologna. She was on a Ph.D.-fellowship from the Universität zu Köln until 2017 and is now an F.R.S.-FNRS grantee to write a Ph.D. dissertation on Arabic alchemy under the supervision of Sébastien Moureau and Cécile Bonmariage. She is currently preparing an annotated critical edition of the Risālat Maryānus, attributed to Prince Khālid ibn Yazīd (d. 704), as well as of its Latin translation known as De Compositione Alchemiae (by Robert of Chester in 1144).

Odile Dapsens is a PhD student working on the transmission of Hebrew magic texts to the Christian world during the Middle Ages. After completing a curriculum of Greek-Latin Studies at Schola Nova (Belgium), she studied History at the University of Louvain, with a specialization in Oriental languages (Hebrew and Greek). Under the direction of Jean-Patrice Boudet (University of Orléans) and Paul Bertrand (University of Louvain) she is preparing for her Ph.D. the critical edition of a Latin version of the Sefer ha-Razim (8^th-9^th centuries), the most famous Jewish text on magic from the Middle Ages. This edition will be accompanied by a French translation and a comprehensive commentary on the different aspects of the transmission of this treatise.