Notes on a Century: Reflections of A Middle East Historian
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The other point of view says that these are the heirs of an old and great civilization. They have gone through some bad times but there are elements in their society which will help, which can be nurtured to develop into some form of limited consensual government in their own cultural tradition. Oddly enough, this is sometimes denounced as the imperialist strategy. But I think it shows far greater respect for the ambitions and aspirations of the people of the region. Western ideas may have helped precipitate such Middle Eastern crises of transition as the Suez War of 1956, and more recently the Arab Spring of 2011, but only the people themselves can resolve these crises. We must beware of proposing solutions which, however good, are discredited by the very fact of our having proposed them. Our politics and diplomacy are not welcome, though our weaponry and our money are.
In Sum
For my ninetieth birthday the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia sponsored a daylong conference attended by over six hundred people on “Islam and the West.” It featured an encomium by Vice President Dick Cheney and presentations by Henry Kissinger, Fouad Ajami, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and others.
Buntzie says that when she called Fouad to tell him about my forthcoming milestone he exclaimed, “Ninety! Oh, don’t tell him.”
During my ninetieth year, I had the usual messages of congratulations and goodwill, including one from an Israeli friend using a common Israeli formula but with an interesting difference. The common Israeli phrase when offering birthday greetings to the elderly is to say, Ad me’a ve-esrim—“Till a hundred and twenty.” The change of one Hebrew consonant made this Ad me’a ke-esrim—“Till a hundred, like twenty.” Much preferable.
I am ninety-five years old now. When I was young at eighty I didn’t know how true it would be when I murmured to Buntzie Robert Browning’s lines “Grow old along with me!/The best is yet to be,/The last of life, for which the first was made . . .” She has improved and lengthened my life.
On walks now I must use a cane or a walker. I need hearing aids. I take naps. My short-term memory is not what it used to be. (Buntzie says that soon I will be normal!) I have deteriorated physically and mentally, but not emotionally.
I have loved my life. I have had a rewarding career. Thirty-two books translated into twenty-nine languages isn’t bad. I have explored places and cultures and been able to play with fifteen languages. Even those who dislike me or with whom I have heartily disagreed are usually interesting and sometimes even stimulating. I have a family and devoted friends whom I cherish.
I have been, and am, very fortunate.
Appendix I
The Dirge
(September 29, 1945)
In the bleakness of German plains,
In the stillness of English woods,
In the squalor of Polish towns,
In the clamour of London streets,
I see them die.
In the eyes of indifferent friends,
In the sullen spite of slaves,
In the haughtiness of lords,
In their brothers that forget,
I see them die.
In the agony of thought,
In the grey relief of toil,
In the fret of idleness,
In the black-ribbed page of print,
I see them die.
In the feckless, flirting pairs,
In the dishes full of food,
In the wineglass, in the wine,
In the sleek, contented smile,
I see them die.
In the soft webs of sleep,
In the pallor of awakening,
In the light, in the shadows,
In the passion, in the regret,
I see them die.
In the pain of remembered joy,
In the sear of remembered pain,
In the hope, in the forgetting,
In the anguish of self,
I see them die.
They the lost, the forgotten,
They the unnumbered, the despairing,
In the camps of reluctant death,
By the barred gates of hope,
I see them die.
In the softness of the strings,
In the discords of the city,
In the golden wildness of autumn,
In the green brilliance of summer,
I see them die.
In the furnaces of hate,
In the pigeon-holes of neglect,
In the prejudice of fools,
In the wisdom of the warped,
I see them die.
In the ecstasy of liberation,
In the sadness of liberty,
In the captivity of distant friends,
In the remoteness of conquerors,
I see them die.
In bondage in the wilderness,
In the dream of a Promised Land,
In the tents of Japhet,
By the tent-ropes of Israel,
I see them die.
They the lost, the forgotten,
They the unnumbered, the despairing,
In the camps of reluctant death,
By the barred gates of hope,
I see them die.
Appendix II
Honors and Publications
Born
London, England, May 31, 1916
Education
B.A. (First Class Honours in History), University of London, 1936
Diplôme des Études Sémitiques, University of Paris, 1937
Ph.D., University of London, 1939
Present
Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus, Princeton University, 1986–
Previous Positions
Assistant Lecturer in Islamic History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1938
Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1940
Senior Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1946
Reader, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1947
Professor of the History of the Near and Middle East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1949–74
The Encyclopedia of Islam, member, Editorial Committee, 1960–91
Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, 1974–86
Long-term Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1974–86
Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986–87
Director, Annenberg Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986–90
Honorary Incumbent, Kemal Atatürk Professorship in Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Princeton University, 1992–93
Visiting Appointments
University of California at Los Angeles, 1955–56
Columbia University, 1960
Indiana University, 1963
Princeton University, 1964 (to deliver the class of 1932 lectures)
Institute for Advanced Study, 1969
Collège de France, Paris, 1980
The Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, Tel Aviv, 1980–
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1983
Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, 1985
Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University, 1984–90
Scholar in Residence, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1988
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1988
Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, 1990–
War Service
British Army, 1940–41
British Intelligence, 1941–45
Honors
Citation of Honor, Turkish Ministry of Culture, 1973
Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1974
Fellow, University College, London, 1976
The Harvey Prize, The Technion, Haifa, 1978
Honorary Doctorate, Tel Aviv University, 1979
; Annual Education Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Promotion of American-Turkish Studies, 1985
Honorary Doctorate, State University of New York, Binghamton, 1987
Honorary Doctorate, University of Pennsylvania, 1987
Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, 1987
Tanner Lecturer, Oxford University, 1990
Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990
Honorary Doctorate, Haifa University, 1991
Honorary Doctorate, Yeshiva University, New York, 1991
Honorary Doctorate, Bar-Ilan University, 1992
Henry M. Jackson Memorial Lecture, Seattle, 1992
Honorary Doctorate, Brandeis University, Waltham, 1993
Honorary Doctorate, Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba, 1996
Honorary Doctorate, Ankara University, Ankara, 1996
Honorary Member, Turkish Academy of Sciences, 1997
Atatürk Peace Prize, 1998
George Polk Award, Long Island University, New York, 2001
Honorary Doctorate, New School University, New York, 2002
Atatürk Society of America Award for Peace and Democracy, 2002
Honorary Doctorate, Princeton University, Princeton, 2002
Honorary Doctorate, Northwestern University, Evanston, 2003
Honorary Doctorate, University of Judaism, Los Angeles, 2004
Golden Plate Award, Academy of Achievement, Washington, D.C., 2004
National Humanities Medal, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2006
Irving Kristol Award, American Enterprise Institute, 2007
Academies
Fellow of the British Academy, 1963
Corresponding Member of Institut d’Égypte, Cairo, 1969
Honorary Member, Turkish Historical Society, Ankara, 1972
Member, American Philosophical Society, 1973
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1983
Honorary Member, Société Asiatique, Paris, 1984
Honorary Member, Atatürk Academy of History, Language, and Culture, 1984
Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1986
Board of Directors, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, 1988
Corresponding Member, Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres, 1994
Societies
Royal Asiatic Society
Royal Historical Society
Royal Institute of International Affairs
American Oriental Society
American Historical Association
Council on Foreign Relations
Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa
Books
The Origins of Ismailism. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd., 1940; reprinted AMS, New York, 1975.
Handbook of Diplomatic and Political Arabic. London: Luzac & Co., Ltd., 1947; reprinted London, 1956.
The Arabs in History. London: Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., 1950, reprinted 1954, 1956; 2nd ed. 1958; reprinted 1960, 1962; 3rd ed. 1964; 4th ed. 1966; reprinted 1968; 5th ed. 1970; reprinted 1975; New York: Oxford University Press, 6th ed., 1993.
Notes and Documents from the Turkish Archives. Jerusalem: Israel Oriental Society, 1952.
The Emergence of Modern Turkey. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1961; rev. ed. 1968; new ed. 2001.
The Kingly Crown (trans. from Ibn Gabirol). London: Vallentine Mitchell, 1961.
Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963; reprinted 1968, 1972.
The Middle East and the West. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, and London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1964; reprinted (paperback) New York: Harper & Row, and Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1964; reprinted (paperback) Harper & Row, 1966, 1968.
The Assassins. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967; New York: Basic Books, 1968, 1970; reprinted 1972, 1980; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Race and Color in Islam. New York: Harper & Row, 1971; reprinted New York: Octagon Books, 1979.
Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople. 2 vols. New York: Walker, 1974; (paperback) New York: Harper & Row, 1974; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
History—Remembered, Recovered, Invented. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975; reprinted 1976; (paperback) New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century. Coauthor with Amnon Cohen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
The Muslim Discovery of Europe. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982, paperback ed. 1985; rev. ed. 2001.
The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984, reprinted 1986; paperback ed. 1987.
Semites and Anti-Semites. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986; London: Orion Publishing, 1997; rev. ed. 1999.
The Political Language of Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. A revised and expanded edition of Race and Color in Islam, 1979.
Islam and the West. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Shaping of the Modern Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. A revised and recast edition of The Middle East and the West, 1964.
Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Age of Discovery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
The Middle East: Two Thousand Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995. National Book Critics Award Finalist.
The Multiple Identities of the Middle East. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998.
A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters and History. New York: Random House, 2000.
Music of a Distant Drum. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror. New York: Random House, 2003.
From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Islam: The Religion and the People. Coauthored with Buntzie Ellis Churchill. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing, 2008.
Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
The End of Modern History in the Middle East. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2011.
Books (edited or coedited)
Land of Enchanters. Editor, London: The Harvill Press Ltd., 1948; reprinted Princeton: Wiener Publishers, 2001.
Historians of the Middle East. Coeditor with P. M. Holt. London: Oxford University Press, 1962; reprinted 1972.
Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Coeditor and author of numerous articles. Leiden: Brill, 1970–80.
The World of Islam. Editor. London: Thames & Hudson. Islam and the Arab World. New York: Knopf, 1976. (Editions of the same book.)
Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Coeditor with Benjamin Braude. 2 vols. New York: Holmes & Meier Publications, Inc., 1982.
Religionsgespräche im Mittelalter. Coeditor with Friedrich Niewöhner. Wiesbaden: Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, 1992.
Collections
Islam in History. London: Alcove Press Ltd., 1973; Chicago: Open Court, 1993; new ed. 2001.
Studies in Classical and Ottoman Islam, 7th–16th Centuries. London: Variorum reprints, 1976.
Le Retour de l’Islam (translations from my works). Paris: Gallimard, 1985.
Islam (translations from my works). Paris: Quatro Gallimard, 2005.
Political Words and Ideas in Islam. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publisher, 2008.
Booklets
British Contributions to Arabic Studies. London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd., 1941.
The Future of the Middle East. London: Phoenix/Orion Publishing Group, 19
97.
Europe and Islam. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Irving Kristol Lecture, March 7, 2007.
Contributions
Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio. Coeditor with others. Vol. II, commentary, London: Athlone Press, 1962.
The Cambridge History of Islam. Coeditor with others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law. (Introduction and additional notes.) Ignaz Goldziher, trans. by Andras and Ruth Hamori. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
As Others See Us: Mutual Perceptions East and West. Coeditor with Edmund Leites and Margaret Case. New York: International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, 1985.
Muslims in Europe. Coeditor with Dominique Schnapper. London: Pinter Publishers, 1994.
Other
Uno sguardo dal Medio Oriente. (A long interview with me.) Rome: Di Renzo Editore, 1999, 2002.
Articles
“The Islamic Guilds,” Economic History Review viii (1937): 20–37.
“An Isma‘ili Interpretation of the Fall of Adam,” BSOAS iv (1938): 179–84.
“A Jewish Source on Damascus just after the Ottoman Conquest,” BSOAS x (1939):179–84.
“An Arabic Account of a Byzantine Palace Revolution,” Byzantion xiv (1939): 383-86.
“Jewish Science according to an Arabic Author of the 11th Century,” Sinai iv (1940): 25–29.
“An Epistle on Manual Crafts,” Islamic Culture xvii (1943): 142–51.
“Arabic Sources on Maimonides,” in S. Rawidowicz (ed.), Metsuda, London, 1945, 171–80.
“An Apocalyptic Vision of Islamic History,” BSOAS xiii (1950): 308–38.
“The Legend of the Jewish Origin of the Fatimid Caliphs,” Melilah iii–iv (1950): 185–87. (In Hebrew.)
“The Near and Middle East,” in C. H. Philips (ed.), Handbook of Oriental History, London, 1951.
“Recent Developments in Turkey,” International Affairs xxvii (1951): 320–31.
“The Danish East India and Asiatic Company Records in the State Archives (Rigsarkiv) in Copenhagen,” The Indian Archives (New Delhi) v (1951): 138–40.