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Guillaume de Vaulx is French and lives in Beirut.
After completing two degrees in philosophy (CAPES and Agrégation), he lived in Saudi Arabia before settling in Egypt. In 2016, he defended his PhD thesis on the topic of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity under the supervision of Professor Marwan Rashed (Paris-IV).
He worked at the IDEO until 2018, before joining the IFPO in Beirut, where he continues his research, leading a project on “animals worshiping God above all else” funded by the French Ministry of the Interior, section of religious affairs.
His research focus on the parallels between Arab and contemporary philosophy.
Guillaume began his research by focusing on the history of classical Arabic thought (9ᵗʰ‒10ᵗʰ centuries) from al-Fārābī before devoting his doctorate to the question of wholeness in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, a systematic understanding of the work published in a summary book form in Arabic with commented translations in French.
This understanding led him to reconsider the historical debates on the authorship of the work and to advance the hypothesis of their authorship by Aḥmad Ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Saraḫsī (d. 286/899), a disciple of al-Kindī (d. 252/866). His articles are mainly devoted to editing the remaining fragments of this author’s works.
He is currently developing a reflection on animality in the classical Arab period, both from the point of view of fables (“The Animal Trial of Human Domination”), of zoology (“Trouble in the Genre, the Rhinoceros is a Bird. The Islamic Beginnings of Anthrozoology”) or the religious sciences (a project on animal piety).
In contemporary philosophy, he worked for several years with Nibras Chehayed on the one hand to translate the philosophical lexicon into Arabic, and on the other hand to reflect on the contemporary world from what Arab cultural production has to say both about art (La destructivité en œuvres. Essai sur l’art syrien contemporain) and literature (La destructivité en personne : Chismah. Essai sur Ahmad Saadawi — forthcoming).
Bibliography in islamic studies
Books
Bees of Lebanon – Another View, en collaboration avec Mira Boustani, Chtoura, A Rocha Lebanon, 2024.
Al-Musta‘ṣiyyāt ‘alā l-tarǧāma fī l-aḫlāqiyyāt, direction de la traduction arabe partielle de Barbara Cassin, Vocabulaire européen des philosophies, Beyrouth, Presses de l’Ifpo, 2024
Identités de papier – essai documenté sur la logique identitaire, in collaboration with Wissam Laham, Beirut, Dergham-Ifpo, 2022
Al-tadmīriyya taškīliyyān. Qirā’āt falsafiyya fī l-fann al-sūrī al-mu‘āṣir – in collaboration with Nibras Chehayed, Beirut, Ifpo, 2021 (in press)
Le procès animal de la domination humaine – fable-fleuve tirée des Rasāʾil Iḫwān al-ṣafā, Paris, Belles Lettres, 2021
La destructivité en œuvres. Essai sur l’art syrien contemporain – in collaboration with Nibras Chehayed, Beirut, Ifpo, 2021
Les Épîtres des Frères en Pureté – Mathématique et philosophie, Paris, Belles Lettres, 2019
Taysīr Rasāʾil Iḫwān aṣ-ṣafā, in collaboration with Sarrah Sulayman, Cairo, al-Hayʾa al-miṣriyya li-l-kitāb, 2017
Histoire de la philosophie, edited by Marc Foglia, Ellipses, 2013, articles “Avicenne”, “Averroès”, “Philosophie arabe” and “Lévi-Strauss.”
Scientific articles
« The Paradox of Creation. Theology of (De)nature and Physics of Worship in the 3rd/9th Century Kalām and Falsafa », Quaderni di Studi Arabi, vol. 18, 1-2 (2023), p. 304-32.
“Trouble dans le genre : le rhinocéros est un oiseau ! Les débuts islamiques de l’anthropozoologie », Anthropozoologica, 2020, vol. 55, p. 257–68
“Man ḥadaṯa ḥadīṯ Abī l-Dardāʾ fī l-ʿulamāʾ waraṯat al-anbiyāʾ wa-man warraṯahu? », MIDEO, 2019, vol. 34, p. 127-144
“La 17e nuit d’at-Tawḥīdī : réfutation d’une hérésie menaçante, les Épîtres des Frères en Pureté », ReMMM, 2019, vol. 146, no 2, p. 245‒70
“Bulletin critique ‒ The Epistle of the Brethren in Purity by the Institute of Ismaili Studies: when the edition of a book can be its destruction », MIDEO, 2019, vol. 34, p.253-330
“Aḥmad b. aṭ-Tayyib as-Saraḫsī, réviseur de l’Introduction arithmétique de Nicomaque de Gérase, et rédacteur des Rasāʾil Iḫwān aṣ-ṣafā. », Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 2019, vol. 29, no 2, p. 261‒83
“Nul ne sera sauvé si tous ne le sont – Le complémentarisme des Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafā – Contribution à la théologie des religions », MIDEO, 2018, vol. 33, p. 136‒79
“Al-Saraḫsī versus al-Kaskarī – plus qu’une dispute religieuse, un événement philosophique », Bulletin d’études orientales, 2018, vol. 66, p. 275‒321
“Dépassement de la dialectique Confessionnalisme s/v Laïcité », Travaux et jours, vol. 95 (2019), p. 47‒64
“La bêtise des penseurs arabes” in Cahiers de l’Islam, vol. 1 (2014), p. 89‒112
“The tasḫīr Problem: did Islamic Theology Influence Arabic Zoology?” Arabic Zoology and the Tasḫīr Question », Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, vol. 69 (2011), p. 47-71
“La naqla, étude du concept de transfert chez al Fârâbî” in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,
vol. 20 (2010), p. 125-176
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The Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies is a research institute dedicated to the study of Islamic heritage and medieval and contemporary Egypt in its religious and cultural dimensions.