Dr. Jakub Sypiański
Historian, Arabist, consultanton AI in research
AI & computational humanities
I apply language models and computational methods where traditional humanities cannot keep up. I am currently building a database of the Islamic Green Revolution — the transfer of crops (rice, citrus, cotton, sugarcane) and agricultural techniques from India and Persia to the Mediterranean (7th–11th c.) — combining NLP, data extraction from sources, and historical criticism.
I also build digital tools for scholars: a digitized Arabic-French dictionary with transliteration search and a multilingual calendar converter with AI-powered historical date interpretation. I have taught a university course on AI in historical research at the Sorbonne.
Research
My research focuses on scientific and intellectual exchanges between the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world (7th–11th c.), particularly the transfer of knowledge across Greek, Syriac, and Arabic traditions. I am also interested in environmental history of the medieval Mediterranean.
At the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, I worked on JenaHEDE (Jena Historical Epidemics Database for Europe), designing the database structure, scraping data from plague catalogues, and geolocating toponyms. I also worked on the environmental history of Chalkidiki using the archives of Mount Athos monasteries.
Publications
Climatic Change, vol. 179 (co-authored with H. Foxhall Forbes et al.)
Critique of palaeoclimatic research that misreads historical evidence, examined through late Roman conflict case studies.
in L'adab, toujours recommencé, Brill
Greek paideia and Arabic adab as parallel models of learned culture.
Photios entre l'Assyrie et al-Andalus
in La diplomatie byzantine, Brill
Patriarch Photios's diplomatic network from Assyrian Christians to al-Andalus.
Current position
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, SSE1K, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Degrees
MA, College of Europe, Natolin
Interdisciplinary European studies
MA, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University
History
BA, University of Warsaw (MISH)
Mediterranean culture
Research tools
Other tools
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Human rights
Volunteer translator and coordinator with Grupa Granica, a grassroots humanitarian initiative providing aid to refugees and migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border.
Press: Amnesty International · Polityka · Helsinki Foundation