New College hosts the first Margoliouth Symposium

On 13th November, New College hosted the first Margoliouth Symposium to celebrate the return of Arabic to the college. Beginning with an exhibition entitled ‘Babel: Arabic, Hebrew, and Languages of the Levant at New College Library, Oxford’, speakers and attendees reflected on the legacy of D.S. Margoliouth and his wife, Jessie Payne Smith. 

Speakers included Julia Bray, AlBabtain Laudian Professor of Arabic Emerita, Will Poole, John Galsworthy Fellow and Tutor in English at New College, Robin Lane Fox, University Reader in Ancient History emeritus, and David G.K. Taylor, Associate Professor of Aramaic and Syriac at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. 

Christian Sahner, Margoliouth Fellow in Arabic, organised the Symposium and considered Margoliouth as a ground-breaking academic and individual in his talk, ‘Margoliouth: A Man of his Times, A Man Ahead of his Times’. 

He reflected on the day of talks, discussion and exhibitions: 

The Margoliouth Symposium was a great success. We had a large crowd, and I think everyone walked away realizing that D.S. Margoliouth and his wife, Jessie Payne Smith, were even more accomplished and interesting that anyone knew. It was a celebratory atmosphere, helped along by good food and drink. A great way to mark the return of Arabic to New College. 

Arabic returned to New College as an undergraduate subject in 2024 after an absence of many years. This followed the establishment of a new fellowship in Arabic in 2023, named in honour of New College’s most famous Arabist, Professor D. S. Margoliouth (1858–1940). 

Margoliouth was the leading scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He came up to New College as an undergraduate in 1877 and was later elected a fellow in 1881. In 1889, he was appointed the Laudian Professor of Arabic, a position he held until his retirement in 1937.