Yousef Casewit

Yousef Casewit is a Qur’anic studies scholar whose research interests include intellectual history of North Africa and al-Andalus, Muslim perceptions of the Bible and medieval commentaries on the 99 divine names of God. He has several publications, most recently The Mystics of al-Andalus: Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth Century (2017), a study on Ibn Barrajan’s life and teachings. He is also the author of a critical edition of a Qur’an commentary by Ibn Barrajan (2016).

Prior to joining the Divinity School, Asst. Prof. Casewit was a humanities research fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi, and an assistant professor of Arabic Intellectual Heritage and Culture at the American University of Sharjah. Current projects include a translation and critical edition of a Sufi-Philosophical commentary on the divine names by the Algerian scholar Afif al-Din al-Tilimsani (d. 1291) for the Library of Arabic Literature.

Born in Egypt and raised in Morocco, he is fluent in Arabic, French and Spanish. Yousef has traveled throughout the Islamic world, and has studied with Muslim scholars in Morocco, Syria, and Mauritania.