Hassen Muhammed Kawo received a Bachelor of Education in Arabic language from the College of Education of Zanzibar, Tanzania and also holds a Master of Arts in Arabic Philology from Addis Ababa University. He became affiliated with the project in 2009, sharing insights into Ethiopian manuscript culture and book history. Hassen currently works as a lecturer in the Arabic Program Unit in the Faculty of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communication at Addis Ababa University. At the same time, he is a doctoral candidate in Historical Studies at UCT, researching the making of an Islamic culture of writing, reading and collecting in Ethiopia.