An Iraqi living in Morocco, Ali al-Kasimi has taught at the universities of Baghdad, Rabat, and Riyadh. Previously, he was educational director and then cultural director at ISESCO and director of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World. He has written and co-authored over 40 books including "The Essential Arabic Dictionary", "Dictionary of Quotations," "Linguistics and Dictionary Making," "Arabic Lexicography in Theory and Practice," "Terminology," "Collected Short Stories," and a novel "The Seven Harbors of Love." Al-Kasimi studied at Baghdad University, the American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut Arab University, University pf Texas, Oxford and the Sorbonne.