Francois de Blois has published widely on Semitic and Iranian languages and on the history of religions in the Near East in pre-modern times. Notably, he contributed to the multi-volume work entitled Persian Literature, which had been initiated by C.A. Storey and published by the Royal Asiatic Society. He served as Professor of Iranian Studies at Hamburg University from 2002 to 2003. Currently he is a research fellow at University College London where he is engagesd in a major project on al-Biruni's 'Chronology' and other Arabic texts on non-Islamic calendars. He is also a teaching fellow for Aramaic and Middle Iranian languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Univerity of London. He has been a frequent contributor to the 'Encyclopaedia of Islam'. His recent publications include the Arabic and New Persian sections of 'The Dictionary of Manichaean Texts', Volume II: 'Texts from Iraq and Iran', edited by Francois de Blois and Nicholas Sims-Williams, Turnhout, 2006.