Arabic and Mathematics

Arabic and mathematics is a striking combination, pairing one of the world's most historically and geographically significant languages with one of the most powerful and versatile of intellectual disciplines. The connection between the two is not merely coincidental: Arabic scholars of the medieval Islamic world made foundational contributions to mathematics, preserving and extending Greek mathematical knowledge and developing algebra, which takes its name from an Arabic word. Studying Arabic alongside mathematics places you at the intersection of linguistic and cultural depth and rigorous quantitative reasoning.

At St Andrews this four-year MA (Hons) programme develops your Arabic to a high level of practical proficiency, including spoken and written language, alongside engagement with the literature, culture, history, and political dimensions of the Arabic-speaking world. The mathematics strand provides a rigorous grounding in pure and applied mathematics, developing your capacity for abstract reasoning, proof, and the application of mathematical techniques across a range of domains. St Andrews treats Arabic as an opportunity for comparative analysis across languages, literatures, cultures, and intellectual traditions, making the combination particularly rich for students interested in the historical relationship between Arabic and mathematical thought.

A year abroad is embedded in the programme, giving you extended immersion in an Arabic-speaking environment.

Graduates are distinctively placed for careers that require both cultural and quantitative depth: diplomacy and international affairs, data science in multinational or Middle Eastern contexts, financial analysis, academia, translation, and intelligence work. The rarity of the combination makes it highly distinctive in the graduate market. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in Arabic, mathematics, or an interdisciplinary field that draws on both.