MUHAMMAD SHAMSADDIN MEGALOMMATIS ([email protected])
(born and baptised as Cosmas Megalommatis, was converted to Islam in February 1994 in Al Azhar Mosque, Cairo - Egypt)
CURRICULUM VITAE
Place and Date of Birth: Athens / Greece – 21 November 1956
Mother tongue: Greek – Father tongue: Turkish
Primary Education: Lycee Leonin d' Athenes (French medium) 1962 – 1968.
Secondary Education: as above 1968 – 1974 / Highschool Certificate – Very Well.
Graduate Education: Athens University, Faculty of Letters 1974 –1978 Graduation Very Well (Classical Studies, Ancient Greek and Latin, Greek and Roman History, Art History, Archaeology, Religion, Mythology, Literature and Philosophy); Institut Francais d' Athenes 1975 –1978 Language and Literature Degrees (in French Literature): Sorbonne I, Sorbonne II, Sorbonne III.
Postgraduate Education: Universite de Paris Sorbonne 1978 – 1979 Maitrise Tres Bien (Egyptology); Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes IVeme Section 1978 – 1980 Eleve Titulaire (many courses in Egyptology, Assyriology, North-Western Semitic Studies, Gueze and Abyssinian); Institut d' Etudes Politiques de Paris 1980 – 1981 DEA Bien (Political Sciences, Eastern European, Slavic and Soviet Studies, requiring high level knowledge of at least one Slavic language for acceptance).
Graduate Education without degrees obtained: Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) 1978 – 1980 (1st and 2nd year of Russian Literature, 1st year of Arabic Language).
Postgraduate Education without degrees obtained: Universite de Pantheon Sorbonne 1979 – 1980 (studies of DEA in Assyriology); Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Veme Section 1978 – 1981 (seminars in Egyptology, Hittite and Anatolian Studies, Assyriology, Gnosticisms and Manicheism); Ecole du Louvre 1978 – 1980 (1st and 2nd year in Egyptology, Assyriology and North – Western Semitic Studies); College de France 1978 – 1981 (courses in Egyptology, Assyriology, North – Western Semitic Studies, Nestorian and Monophysite Christianity); University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies) 1981 – 1982 (Assyriology); Wilhelms Westfaelische Universitaet Muenster 1983 – 1984 (Assyriology and Egyptology); University of Damascus 1984 (North – Western Semitic Studies and Assyriology); Hebrew Jerusalem University (Mount Scopus) 1984 – 1985 (Egyptology and Assyriology); Madrasah – e Shuhada – Tehran 1986 (Islamic Philosophy and Sciences).
Professors in my Postgraduate Studies: France (J. Leclant – Permanent Secretary of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, J. Yoyotte, J. de Cenival, Chr. Desroches – Noblecourt, P. Vernus, E. Laroche, J. Bottero, P. Garelli, P. Amiet, Fl. Malbran – Labat, D. Charpin, A. Caquot, M. Sznycer, J.-G. Heintz, M. Rodinson, M. Tardieu, A. Guillaumont, Helene Carrere d' Encausse – Permanent Secretary Institut de France, Serie Immortels), England (D.J. Wiseman), Germany (R. Mayer – Opificius, J. von Beckerath), Syria (M. Harb Farzat), Israel (H. Tadmor, S. Israelit – Groll), Iran (Ayatullah Alameh Yahya Noori).
Many languages degrees and diplomas obtained in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
Other languages: Italian (average), Arabic (average), Farsi (average), Portuguese (elementary).
Ancient languages: Egyptian Hieroglyphic, Ancient Greek, Latin (all three excellent), Assyrian – Babylonian, Phoenician (working level)
Training educational programs: Commission of the European Communities, Brussels 1982 –1983 Translation and Interpretation Services, Division Traduction Francaise
Scholarships (obtained, either used, or not used): a) Spanish Government, b) College d' Europe – Bruges, c) Bulgarian Government (via UNESCO), d) Danish Government, e) Israeli Government, f) Iraqi Government, g) Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, h) A. Onassis Foundation.
Professional Experience:
Translation: 1/ Free Lance translator Brussels 1982 – 1983; 2/ Translator (from English, French, German, Turkish, Spanish and Greek to French, English, Spanish, Greek and Turkish) for several Greek and Turkish Publishing Houses) many books and numerous documents translated.
Journalism - Publishing: 1/ Free Lance journalist (worked with more than 30 different newspapers, weeklies or monthlies, in Greece, Turkey, Iran, Egypt and England, covering subjects (of only Middle Eastern context) as various as economics, warfront developments, religion, esoterism and religious symbolism, history, literature, philosophy, ideology, culture, archeological places and monuments, politics, international relations (but, in their largest part, they focused on historical, religious, archeological, mostly pre-Christian, subjects). Many hundreds of articles written in Greek, Turkish, French, English and German; a total of more than 4000p.), 2/ Academic Advisor and Member of the Editorial Board (in several newspapers and magazines in Greece and Turkey), 3/ Editor, 4/ Deputy Managing Editor of Cleo Magazine (2002, Cairo, Egypt), 5/ Senior Editor of CIT Business (Cairo, Egypt - current occupation).
Award in Journalism: Abdi Ipekci 2nd Prize of Journalism 1986 (for writing in favour of a good perspective of Greek Turkish relationship and of an Entente between the two countries).
Academic & Teaching activities: 1/ Visiting Professor at the Goulandris Horn Foundation, Athens, 1989; 2/ Visiting Professor at the New Acropole Foundation, Athens, 1987 -1988, 3/ Lecturer at the Kibris Vakfi – Foundation, Istanbul, 1994 – 1996, 4/ Lecturer at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus – Turkey, 1994 – 1996, 5/ Lecturer at the Fatih University, Istanbul, 1996 –1997.
Scholarly Research: 1/ Research Fellow (a. many personal studies and researches carried out in many archeological places in almost all the countries between Mauritania and Ethiopia, Greece and Pakistan, Yemen and Kazakhstan; b. participation in many academic congresses, conferences and colloquia; c. numerous academic publications such as scholarly articles, review articles, book reviews, obituaries, etc (a total of more than 500p.); d. Member of Editorial Board of scholarly reviews), 2/ Contributor, Academic Advisor and Member of the Editorial Board of several encyclopedias in Greece and in Turkey (1985 – 1999, hundreds of entries published – some very long ones; a total of more than 1000p.), 3/ Academic Advisor of Research Foundations and Publishing Houses.
Authorship: more than 10 books published in several languages and countries (and translated) with subjects varying (History, Ancient Literatures, Religions, Politics, International Relations), a total of more than 2200p. (several books under edition).
N.B.: See separate document on my major works and publications
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Major Works and Scholarly Publications
A. Books
1. The Periplus of Hanno, King of Carthaginians. Preface, Introduction, Text and Translation, Commentary and Historical Milieu (in two chapters); Stohastis Publishing House, Athens, 1991, 108p. (for a text of only 650 words narrating the Carthaginian mission sent by King Hanno to navigate up to the coast of today's Sierra Leone at the middle of the 5th c. BCE)
2. The Adventures of Wenamun (first Modern Greek translation of an Egyptian Hieroglyphic text). Preface, Introduction, Text and Translation, Commentary and Annexes (plus special historical map); Stohastis Publishing House, Athens, 1992, 160p. (for a text of only 10p. narrating the trip of Wenamun, Priest of Amun of Thebes, to Byblus of Phoenicia, then ruled by the Tsekker, a remnant of the Sea Peoples, at 1060 BCE)
3. The Ship of Suleyman. Introduction, Translation, Commentary; Stohastis Publishing House, Athens, 1993, 304p. (big text narrating the deeds of the Persian diplomatic mission of Shah Suleyman to the King of Siam at 1687 – 88, a moment when the Greek Constantine Yerakis, a Jesuit working for the interests of the King of France, was prime minister in Siam; the text, being full of elements of Persian Safevid culture, the commentary focuses mostly on this)
4. The Periplus of the Red Sea. Preface, Introduction-with hundreds of footnotes, Text and Translation, Commentary and Annexes (plus special historical maps); Stohastis Publishing House, Athens, 1994, 288p. (for a text of 24p. narrating in an extremely condensed way the details of trade and navigation from Egypt to the Eastern African Coast, up to today's Tanzania, and to Indochina and China, land and sea routes being alternatively mentioned in this regard; around 100p. of the book, the footnotes to the Introduction, being in characters 7,5')
5. The Book of the Travels (Sefer Ha'masaoth) of Benjamin of Tudela. Preface, Introduction, Translation, Commeentary, Bibliography (plus special historical maps), Stohastis Publishing House, Athens, 1994, 368p. (for a text of appr. 90 p. narrating the trip of the Spanish Jew Benjamin of Tudela to various parts of the Middle East and the Indian Ocean in a quest for the Ten lost Tribes of Israel; mine was the largest part of the Introduction and of the Commentary, since I had to cooperate with the Greek byzantinist A. Savvides, who covered the part of the text (as well as of the Benjamin's trip) that is related to the area of Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire; I supervised the translation that was done not from the original Medieval Hebrew text, but from the English edition of the text by Adler).
6. The Six Stars of the Orient. Domos Publishing House, Athens, 1994, 224p. (a historical, religious, philosophical, ideological and archeological itinerary in six cities and provinces of Eastern Turkey: Edessa of Osrhoene – Urfa, Commagene, Amida – Diyarbakir, Margdis – Mardin, Nisibis and Thospitis – Van; the first extensive coverage of the Nestorian and the Monophysite Christianity, of Manichaeism and of Mithraism in Greece)
7. The Greek – Turkish relationship and the Balkans, Kibris Vakfi, Istanbul, 1994, 80p. (a historical analysis of the misinterpretations of Ancient, Medieval and Modern History detected within the modern nationalist Greek political ideology and their implications in the recent Balkan problems)
8. the same in Turkish translation, Kibris Vakfi, Istanbul, 1994, 80p.
9. the same in Albanian translation, the Albanian Center in Istanbul, 1995, 62 p.
10. Pre-Christian Egypt and its contribution to the World History. Selected works of M.S.Megalommatis translated into Arabic, (a very representative selection of my publications about Pre-Christian Egypt; work completed and under edition, 220p.; some of the chapters it contains are a) Egypt, an entry published in the E.E. Encyclopedia of Ekdotike Athenon, b) the major article no4 (see below), c) Horus, an entry published in Hydria Encyclopedia – Athens, d) Ostanism (a current of Perso- Greco-Egyptian religious syncretism of the Late Antiquity), e) Psammetichus I, II, III (plus: Greeks in Egypt at the times of Psammetichus, an entry published in Hydria), f) the temple of Isis at Philae, g) the Temple of Horus at Edfu, h) the Temple of Hathor at Denderah (the three last being articles published in a Greek monthly), etc.)
11. The Ptolemies and the Romans in Egypt, (personal edition) Athens, 1996, 192p.
12. The Red Sea and Greece, (personal edition) Athens, 1997, 160p.
* Recently diffused private edition: Arkamaniqo, His Fight for Jesus and God. Secret Egyptian Hieroglyphic Manuscripts from Meroe, Sudan. Cairo 2003, 600 p.
N.B. Three books under preparation (on Cosmas Indicopleustes' Christian Topograghy, on Geographi Graeci Minores and on the Expedition to Punt by Hatshepsut, Queen of Egypt)
B. Major Scholarly Articles
1. Mithraism and Zoroasterianism in North – Western Iran at the Sassanid times; in: Byzantinos Domos, Athens, 1989, 49p.
2. L' URSS et la crise en Chypre en ete 1974; in: Journal of Oriental and African Studies (JOAS) 2, Athens, 1990, 40p.
3. The Canaanites and the Phoenicians in Western Mediterranean and North – Western Africa; in: JOAS 3, Athens 1991, 24p.
4. The Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 13th century BCE and the Sea Peoples, in: JOAS 4, Athens 1992, 40p. (translated in Arabic in book no10)
5. Les Peuples de la Mer et la fin du Monde Mycenien. Essai de synthese historique; in: Atti e Memorie del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Micenologia, GEI, Rome, 1996, 21p.
N.B. Two major articles under publication