Shawkat M. Toorawa, born in 1963, is the Brand Blanshard Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a professor of comparative literature at Yale University. He specializes in classical, medieval, and modern Arabic literature and publishes scholarly work and translations from Arabic. He is a multicultural Muslim whose life has included residency in England, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, and the United States. He serves on the faculty of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department at Yale University.