Modern Languages (Arabic and Persian) and Latin
Arabic, Persian and Latin is a combination that brings together three languages of extraordinary historical and cultural significance. Arabic is the official language of more than twenty countries and the vehicle for one of the great intellectual and literary traditions of human history. Persian has served for centuries as the language of courts, literature and scholarship across the Middle East and Central and South Asia, and its literary tradition encompasses some of the most celebrated poetry in the world.
Latin is the foundation of the Romance languages and the language of classical antiquity, connecting you to the texts that shaped European intellectual history and providing a precise understanding of how language itself is structured. Together they form one of the most intellectually ambitious combinations available at undergraduate level.
At the University of St Andrews, this four-year full-time MA programme develops your proficiency in Arabic and Persian alongside your study of Latin, building engagement with the literary, cultural and historical dimensions of all three traditions. A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you extended immersion in one or more of the language communities you are studying and significantly deepening your linguistic competence and cultural understanding.
Graduates with expertise across Arabic, Persian and Latin are genuinely rare and highly distinctive in the graduate market. Careers in diplomacy, intelligence, international organisations, academic research, journalism specialising in Middle Eastern or Central Asian affairs, translation, and the cultural and heritage sector are all natural directions. The linguistic depth and cultural breadth this combination provides are valued in any professional context that requires engagement with the Arabic-speaking or Persianate worlds alongside classical scholarship.
Postgraduate study in Arabic, Persian, Islamic studies, classical languages or Middle Eastern history opens further specialist routes.