Professor Yohanan Friedmann holds a B.A. in Arabic Language and Literature and History of the Islamic Countries, and an M.A. in Arabic Language and Literature from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his PhD in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He has taught at The Hebrew University since 1966 and became Professor of Islamic Studies in 1984. He served as Chairman of the Institue of Asian and African Studies (1975-1978), Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (1985-1988) and Chairman of the departmnet of Arabic Language (2002-2004). In 2003 Professor Friedmann was awarded the Israel Prize of Middle Eastren Studies. He is a member of the Israel Acacdemy of Sciences and Humanities and served as Chairman of the Division of Humanities (2007-2013). In 2016 Professor Friedmann was awarded the Rothschild prize in the humanities and the Israel Prize in Middle Eastern Studies.