Nikola Dukas

Hi there, my name is Nikola but my Arabic name is Walid al-Maqduni. I am a University of Oxford and London SOAS trained Researcher and Linguist of Arabic and Islamic Studies. Unlike many tutors of Arabic I am therefore an academically qualified Arabist and Islamicist rather than a tutor of another language or subject who thinks they can teach some Arabic on the side because they happen to be Muslim and/or come from an Arabic speaking country.

I offer high quality, interactive and individually tailored tuition in Modern Standard/Classical Arabic to adults, mainly BA,MA/MSc,and PhD students and journalists or researchers but also to those preparing for A Levels in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Because of my background and academic training I am also able to offer tuition in Turkish.

I have over 10 years' experience teaching Arabic and Islamic Texts and also offer tuition for degree level Islamic History and Islamic Studies, with an excellent track record helping undergrad and postgrad students (such as those studying for Arabic and/or Islamic Studies related exams at SOAS or Cambridge) dramatically improve their grades.

I have a very interactive, patient and engaging teaching style, largely the result of having first hand experience and understanding of the position of those who come to the language as non-native speakers, as I myself did over twenty years ago.

I also have over 10 years of Arabic into English translation experience of press and academic material and of Islamic religious, legal and historical texts for postgraduate students, academics, and researchers.

I am not, therefore, someone who is able to teach Arabic simply because it is my first language, but because I have extensively studied, researched and worked with the language and its attendant religion and civilization in a Western academic context.

I therefore likewise encourage my own students, in particular those from a non-Muslim and non-Arab background, to work under my guidance towards the A level in Arabic and Cambridge International A Level in Islamic Studies, which are both respectable and of sufficiently high standard in their own right and impressive on a professional CV, even for mature adults.

When new students who book two 2-hour sessions, I charge £25 per hour and give them a third 2-hour session FREE of charge.

For students only interested in 1 or 2 Arabic and Islamic Studies tutorials or consultations of at least 2 hours each I charge £40 per hour.

Unlike most other tutors in London, I have access to classrooms in a University of London campus building in central London, which I can use at no extra cost to myself or my students, and therefore do not have to resort to teaching in noisy and crowded cafes.

Academic and Language Background:

MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies (with distinction) from SOAS, University of London, BA in Arabic with Islamic History from the University of Oxford, PG Cert in Turkish and qualifications in foreign language teaching (including CELTA/PG Cert Teaching English for Academic Purposes and a Certificate in Teaching Foreign Languages).

I am a native speaker of Greek with an advanced command of Turkish as a result of being originally from Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece (from a small town just 10 miles from the Turkish border), a region that has a large, indigenous Turkish speaking Muslim minority. I have ancestors who were Turkish speaking and formerly Muslim Anatolian Greeks and Georgians from Eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus. Coupled with my academic background, this has enabled me to acquire an ability to also study, research and teach texts in Ottoman Turkish.

I also have direct family links to the Arab world and Arabic language, since I have some Assyrian ancestry from Northern Iraq and several ancestors who were Ottoman Greek Muslims and Georgian Muslims who served as Ottoman governors or senior commanders in Algeria, Syria-Palestine and Northern Iraq, which is what first inspired my academic interest in Arabic and the Islamic Middle East.

I am currently doing research for a part-time PhD on Islamic Political Theology and Legal Theory, based on medieval Arabic texts.

Additionally, and uniquely among western Arabists and Islamicists, I have extensive experience of traditional Arabic and Islamic learning in the Middle East and North Africa, for example as a longstanding, regular visiting student/researcher at the Qarawiyyin madrasa-university in Fez, Morocco.

I look forward to hearing from interested students.

Nikola / Walid al-Maqduni

Tutoring Experience

Excellent track record of over 10 years'experience helping undergraduate and postgrad students studying for degrees in Arabic and/or Islamic Studies/Middle Eastern Studies (particularly at SOAS or Cambridge) dramatically improve their grades.

I also have over 8 years of Arabic into English translation experience of press and academic material and of Islamic religious, legal and historical texts for postgraduate students, academics, and researchers.

Tutoring Approach

I have a very interactive, patient and engaging teaching style, largely the result of having first hand experience and understanding of the position of those who come to the language as non-native speakers, as I myself did over twenty years ago.