Ihsan Abbas

Ihsan Abbas
Born(1920-12-02)December 2, 1920
Ayn Ghazal, Mandatory Palestine
DiedJanuary 29, 2003(2003-01-29) (aged 82)
Amman, Jordan
AwardsKing Faisal International Prize
Academic background
Alma mater
InfluencesIbn Hazm, Kahlil Gibran
Academic work
Main interestsArabic literature, Islamic jurisprudence

Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – July 29, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut,[1] and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century.[2] The "author of over one hundred books",[3] during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic.[4] Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.[5]

  1. ^ Samir Kassir, Beirut, p. 472. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. ISBN 9780520256682
  2. ^ "Eight scholars from around world to be awarded honorary degrees". The University of Chicago Chronicle, Vol. 13, No. 4, October 14, 1993.
  3. ^ Einboden, J. ""Call me Ismā'īl": The Arabic Moby-Dick of Iḥsān 'Abbās." Leviathan, vol. 12 no. 1, 2010, p. 4
  4. ^ Suheil Bushrui, "Jubran Khalil Jubran." Taken from "Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: 1850–1950," p. 184. Vol. 3 of Essays in Arabic Literary Biography, Band 17. Eds. Roger M. A. Allen, Joseph Edmund Lowry and Devin J. Stewart. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010. ISBN 9783447061414
  5. ^ Lawrence Conrad, "Ihsan Abbas: Custodian of Arabic Heritage and Culture." Al-Qantara, vol. xxvi, iss. #1, pp. 5–17. 2005.