William Granara is an American author, translator and scholar of of Arabic language and literature. He studied at Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 and the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, obtaining his PhD from the latter in Arabic and Islamic studies. He has worked for the American University in Cairo

American University in Cairo

The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...

 and for the US State Department in Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

. He is currently director of the Arabic language program at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

Granara is an expert on the history of Muslim Sicily, and on the Sicilian Arab poet Ibn Hamdis

Ibn Hamdis

Ibn Hamdis was a Sicilian Arab poet.He was born in Noto, near Syracuse. When he was 31, his town was captured by the Normans and he was forced to move to Andalusia, then still under Muslim control, at Sevilla, where he made friends with prince Al Mutamid, who was also a poet...

. He has also contributed to a volume entitled The Architecture and Memory of the Minority Quarter in the Muslim Mediterranean City. Among his translations are:

• The Earthquake by Tahir Wattar
  Tahir Wattar
  al-Tahir Wattar was an Algerian writer. Called "one of the North African nation’s most prolific Arabic-language authors". Wattar wrote about the post-colonial situation in independent Algeria. He denounced Algeria's French-language writers as "vestiges of colonialism". Wattar published his first...
  
  
• Granada by Radwa Ashour
  Radwa Ashour
  -Life:She graduated from Cairo University with a BA in 1967, and MA. in 1972, and from University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a Ph.D. in 1975.She teaches at Ain Shams University.She married Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti in 1970....
  
  
• The Battle of Poitiers by Jurji Zaydan
  Jurji Zaydan
  Jurji Zaydan was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher most noted for his creation of the journal al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his 23 historical novels.His primary goal as a writer and intellectual during the Nahda was to imbue the common...
  
  

Granara's work has appeared in Banipal

Banipal

Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...

magazine.