The Koran Interpreted: A Translation About the Author Arthur John Arberry, as Head of the Department of Classics at Cairo University, acquired a firsthand knowledge of literary and social conditions in the Islamic Middle East. Between 1947 and 1969 he served as Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University. He published some twenty books in Islamic studies during his lifetime, many dealing with mysticism and poetry. Professor Arberry died in England in 1969.