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My current research is focused on the history of science and philosophy in Islam and, more specifically, on issues dealing with the transmission of knowledge between the ancient Graeco-Roman world, the Muslim world and the Latin Middle Ages. For the past 15 years, I have been exploring the encyclopaedic work known as the “Epistles of the Brethren of Purity” (Rasâ’il Ikhwân al-Safâ’) to which I have devoted numerous publications, including a book entitled Ikhwan al-Safa': A Brotherhood of Idealists on the Fringe of Orthodox Islam for the «Makers of the Muslim World» series directed by Patricia Crone (Oxford: Oneworld, 2005). I am also currently involved in the Institute of Ismaili Studies project to publish a multi-volume Arabic critical edition of The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, with an annotated English translation, introduction and critical commentary. The epistles which I have been commissioned to edit on my own are: 7 (“The scientific arts”), 28 (“The limits of human knowledge”), 36 (“Revolutions and cycles”) and 52 (“Magic, talismans and the evil eye”). The publication of the short version of Epistle on magic, by Bruno Halflants and myself, is due to appear in 2011.

In 2003 I initiated, together with my colleague Baudouin Van den Abeele, a joint research project on medieval encyclopaedism (“Cyclopes : Encyclopédies comme images du monde et comme vecteurs d'échanges intellectuels dans l'Islam et l'Occident au Moyen Age”, see http://cyclopes.fltr.ucl.ac.be/). So far, we have been able to engage three PhD students (Jérémy Loncke, 2004-2006; Sébastien Moureau, from 2006-2010; Max Schmitz, from 2008) as well as two Post-doctoral students (Iolanda Ventura, 2007-2009 and Rémy Cordonnier, 2008-2009). We have organised two symposiums: “Le discours encyclopédique arabe et latin au Moyen Âge: l’incorporation des savoirs étrangers” (UCL, 2003) and “Une lumière venue d’ailleurs: héritages et ouvertures dans les encyclopédies d’Orient et d’Occident au Moyen Âge Â» (UCL, 2005 ; proceedings published in 2008). In 2006 we started to organise a yearly seminar, mixing local speakers with international experts. We plan to organise one such seminar every year, on various topics related to our project.

Beside this project, I have co-organised two other international congresses, both held in Louvain-la-Neuve and Leuven and organised jointly with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: “Al-Kitâb: la sacralité du texte en Islam” (2002, proceedings published in 2004) and “Miroir et Savoir: la transmission d'un thème platonicien, des Alexandrins à la philosophie arabo-musulmane” (2005, in partnership with the CNRS, proceedings published in 2008).

My work published or forthcoming consists of 7 monographs (of which 4 as author or co-author and 3 as co-editor) and more than 30 articles, all of them published in internationally recognised periodicals or collective volumes.

Topics I have found myself interested in are often at the crossroads of two or more disciplines: history of science, philosophy, philology, historiography, history of art. This eclecticism is certainly not casual. Ever since my debut, and more especially still since I wrote my PhD dissertation at the Warburg Institute, I have acquired the conviction that the best results are drawn, not from conducting one’s research in one direction alone, but rather by comparing and assessing results from several fields of knowledge simultaneously. A common objective of nearly all my studies has been to seek to understand how ideas, doctrines, or symbols have been transferred over the centuries, being re-interpreted, re-used and eventually enriched or distorted beyond recognition.

I am the author of around 50 reviews of scholarly works. These have appeared in a variety of internationally renowned periodicals.