Returning to Portugal, he enrolled in the Higher Course in Letters in 1892, which he completed three years later. In 1896, he began teaching French at the Liceu Central de Lisboa and, in 1901, he joined the Higher Course in Letters, where he taught French Language and Literature. With the creation of the Faculdade de Letras [School of Arts and Humanities] in 1911, he was appointed professor of the same subject, where he had been teaching intensively until then, while continuing his work as a historian, philologist and Arabist. In 1914, David Lopes took on the chair of Arabic Language on a part-time basis, while continuing as a professor of French Language and Literature until the academic year 1929-30.

His teaching career as a university professor was followed by a large number of students who remained loyal to him. However, this group of distinguished disciples was not accompanied by the foundation of a true school of Orientalists, as was the case in Spain, France and other European countries. David Lopes had a distinguished student and researcher of merit, Abílio Manuel Roseira (1898-1935), who was to succeed him as professor of Arabic at the Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa [School of Arts and Humanities of Lisbon]. With this intention, he went to study in Madrid, where he died suddenly (Machado, Letters addressed to David Lopes, pp. 25 and 469-475). Despite this, there were many Orientalists in Portugal, such as Francisco Maria Esteves Pereira – David Lopes wrote an article about this researcher entitled “Um orientalista português” (A Portuguese Orientalist) in the Revista da Faculdade de Letras, no. 7, 1940 – and Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado.

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