Michel Cuypers is specialist on Biblical and Semitic Studies, and a follower of Charles de Foucauld. Cuypers resided in Iran for twelve years, first at a leper colony in Tabriz, and later studying Persian language and literature in Teheran. He obtained a doctorate in Persian literature from the University of Teheran in 1983. He studied Arabic in Syria and Egypt, and in 1989 he moved to Cairo, where he presently resides as a researcher at the Dominican Institute for Eastern Studies. Since 1994 Cuypers has utilized the method of rhetorical analysis on the composition of the Qur an text. His articles and essays are being increasingly appreciated by Muslim scholars.