Mandar Marathe

Dr Mandar Marathe completed his BA (Hons) in Arabic at SOAS University of London in 2021, including a year abroad at Qasid Institute in Amman, Jordan. His final-year project was a translation of a chapter from the classical text "I‘jāz al-Qur’ān" (The Inimitability of the Qur’ān) by the Islamic theologian Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin aṭ-Ṭayyib al-Bāqillānī (c.940–1013 CE).

Mandar then obtained an MA in Advanced Arabic at University of Exeter in 2022. His research project examined the feasibility of using existing quantitative linguistics techniques to quantify the use of rhetoric ("al-Balāgha") in Arabic texts. The project created a prototype scoring system that gives a numeric score reflecting the number of rhetorical devices found in a text. This allows the rhetorical content of different texts to be compared. 

Prior to studying Arabic at SOAS and Exeter, Mandar earned a BSc. (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences in 1998, and a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1999, both from the University of Southampton. He was awarded a Diploma in Medical Toxicology by the University of Cardiff in 2004. He has been a General Medical Council registered specialist, and a consultant in Emergency Medicine, since 2009. He has lived and worked as a doctor in the UK, Qatar and Australia.

Mandar's interdisciplinary doctoral research integrates his scientific and medical background with his advanced training in Arabic and Islamic Studies. His research aims to develop and apply quantitative tools for analysing Arabic Rhetoric, a field traditionally assessed qualitatively. The results of this work will contribute a new perspective to the Islamic doctrine of the Qur’ān's inimitability, and to broader discussions within Arabic Studies.