Joseph Sadan

Joseph Sadan was born in 1939 in Tel Aviv

Joseph Sadan was born in Tel Aviv in 1939. He was the son of the writer and scholar Dov Sadan and the brother of the economist Ezra Sadan. He attended the Tel Nordau elementary school and finished the Hebrew University Secondary School in Jerusalem in 1958, in its Oriental studies track.

From 1958 to 1963 he studied Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University, earning a BA and an MA. His master's thesis dealt with the home and its equipment in the medieval Middle East. He then wrote a doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris on furniture in the medieval Middle East.

From 1970 he worked at Tel Aviv University, and he also taught at the Hebrew University, the University of Haifa and Menashe College. He became a full professor in 1989 and retired at the end of 2007. He held the Irene Helmus Chair for Arabic Literature until October 2009.

His research covered material and social culture, medieval Arabic prose known as adab, and Jewish-Arab relations, including Yehuda Alharizi and the Sabbatean movement. He also published forgotten tales similar to the Arabian Nights and wrote on Arab humor. He died on January 25, 2025.