Nabia Abbott is one of the most important scholars of Arabic manuscripts and papyrology in the 20th century. While it is now recognized that her work on early Islamic paleography can be refined, her study on the development of scripts (The Rise of the North Arabic Script and its Kur’anic Development with a Full Description of the Kur’an Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute) remains a critical book for the study of the Arabic script. 

In 1933, Nabia Abbott (1897-1981) became a staff member of the ISAC and remained here for another 30 years. Born in Mardin in Turkey in 1897, her family left the region and in 1907 travelled to Iraq and then on to Bombay. Nabia Abbott received her B.A. at the Isabella Thorbom College for Girls in Lucknow which at the time was affiliated with Allahabad University (now it is affiliated with the University of Lucknow). Nabia then worked with Gertrude Bell in Iraq to set up education for girls, before moving with her family to Boston in 1923. She then received her M. A. at Boston University in 1925 and moved to Asbury college where she stayed for 8 years. She moved with her family to Chicago and began studying with Martin Sprengling at the Oriental Institute. She was initially Traveling Fellow and Research Assistant (1933-1937) before coming first Assistant Professor (1938-1943), Associate Professor (1943-1949), and then Professor of Islamic Studies (1949-1963). Her PhD dissertation was on the Qurrah papyri and appeared in 1936. She wrote important books on Arabic paleography as well the world’s oldest known 1001 Nights fragment.