Alastair Hamilton has been attached to the Warburg Institute since 2003.
A Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, former Dr C.Louise Thijssen-Schoute Professor of the History of Ideas at the University of Leiden and Emeritus Professor of the History of the Radical Reformation at the University of Amsterdam, he received his M.A. and PhD from Cambridge University.
His main interests lie in two fields: the history of Arabic studies and, more generally, of orientalism in Europe in the early modern period, with a special emphasis on the Arabic-speaking Christians; and religious non-conformism in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe (especially in Spain, Italy and the Low Countries).
A theme which has always fascinated him and which he introduces into most of his work is the fluctuating process of gathering and transmitting knowledge, the different means of evaluating sources (especially forgeries and apocrypha), and the illusions resulting from misinterpretation. He is now working on Arabic studies in eighteenth-century Germany and he continues to study the European translations of the Qu’ran between 1500 and 1800.
Publications
Follow this link for a list of publications in print