Albert Habib Hourani ( ar, ألبرت حبيب حوراني ''Albart Ḥabīb Ḥūrānī''; 31 March 1915 – 17 January 1993) was a
Lebanese British historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
, specialising in the
history of the Middle East and
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...
.
Background and education
Hourani was born in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
, England, the son of Soumaya Rassi and Fadlo Hourani, immigrants from
Marjeyoun in what is now
South Lebanon (see
Lebanese diaspora
Lebanese diaspora refers to Lebanese migrants and their descendants who emigrated from Lebanon and now reside in other countries. There are more Lebanese living outside Lebanon (over 4 million), than within the country (4 million citizens). T ...
). Fadlo had studied at what later became the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...
and settled in Manchester as a cotton merchant. Albert's brothers were
George Hourani
George Fadlo Hourani (3 June 1913 – 19 September 1984) was a British philosopher, historian, and classicist. He is best known for his work in Islamic philosophy, which focused on classical Islamic rationalism and ethics.
Biography
George Ho ...
, philosopher, historian, and classicist, and
Cecil Hourani, economic adviser to
President of Tunisia
The president of Tunisia, officially the president of the Tunisian Republic ( ar, رئيس الجمهورية التونسية), is the head of state of Tunisia. Tunisia is a presidential republic, whereby the president is the head of state a ...
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba (; ar, الحبيب بورقيبة, al-Ḥabīb Būrqībah; 3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of ...
. His family had converted from
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonic ...
to
Scottish Presbyterianism and his father became an elder of the local church in Manchester. Hourani himself, in turn,
converted to Catholicism in adulthood. Fadlo had extensive business contacts with the Levantine community both in Manchester and in the Ottoman Empire, and Cecil Hourani commented on the household's mixed Anglo-Levantine culture:
''"... to my earliest memories in Manchester there were two faces: the one Near Eastern, Lebanese, full of poetry, politics, and business; the other partly Scottish Presbyterian, full of Sunday church-going and Sunday school, partly English through an English nanny and a succession of English and Irish cooks and maids."''
Fadlo Hourani tried to enroll Albert into a
preparatory school in Manchester but it did not accept him as it did not take 'foreigners'; Fadlo instead opened an
alternative school
An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientati ...
in which Albert studied until the age of fourteen. He later studied at
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
History
A committee of Nonconformis ...
, London before attending
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...
, where he studied
Philosophy, Politics, Economics and History (with an emphasis on
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such ...
in the politics section of the degree), graduating
first in his class in 1936.
The academic
H. A. R. Gibb
Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), known as H. A. R. Gibb, was a Scottish historian and Orientalist.
Early life and education
Gibb was born on Wednesday, 2 January 1895, in Alexandria, Egypt, ...
was among his mentors.
Career
He taught in 1938–39 at the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...
, the first time he had lived in an Arabic speaking country
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
he worked at the
Royal Institute of International Affairs
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
(aka Chatham House) and in the office of the British
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...
in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...
. When in Cairo, Hourani rented a room in
Paul Kraus's house; in 1944 Kraus was found hanged in his bathroom for an alleged suicide.
After the war's end, he worked at the Arab Office in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
and London, where he helped prepare the Arab case for the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American committee assembled in Washington, D.C. on 4 January 1946. The committee was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine and the well- ...
.
[ Joel Beinin, 'Arab Liberal Intellectuals and the Partition of Palestine', in Arie M. Dubnov and Laura Robson, eds, ''Partitions : A Transnational History of Twentieth-Century Territorial Separatism'', Stanford University Press, 2019, pp.203-223 ]
He began his academic career, which would occupy the rest of his life, in 1948, teaching at
Magdalen College
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...
,
St. Antony's College (where he created and directed the college's Middle East Centre), the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...
, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. He ended his academic career as Fellow of St. Antony's and Reader in the History of the Modern Middle East at Oxford. Hourani trained more academic historians of the modern Middle East than any other university historian of his generation. Today his students can be found on the faculties of LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, MIT and the University of Haifa, among others.
He was appointed CBE in the
1980 Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours 1980 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate ...
.
Influence on Middle Eastern studies
According to historian Rashid Khalidi (quoted from within a series of essays gathered originally for a conference in Hourani's honor), "Hourani’s students, and their students, have over the last few decades effectively populated and then produced the core of the field of modern Middle East history in North America and Europe, and parts of the Middle East and other regions as well (2016).
Hourani's most popular work is ''
A History of the Arab Peoples'' (1991), a readable introduction to the
history of the Middle East and an international best seller. ''Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1789–1939'' (1962) is one of the first scientific attempts at a comprehensive analysis of the ''
nahda
The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Leb ...
'', the Arab revival of the 19th century, and the opening of the Arab world to modern European culture; it remains one of the major works on this subject. ''Syria and Lebanon. A Political Essay'' (1946) and ''Minorities in the Arab World'' (1947) are other major works. He also wrote extensive works on the
orientalist perspective on Middle Eastern cultures through the 18th and 19th centuries, and he developed the influential concept of the "
urban notables" – political and social elites in provincial Middle Eastern cities and towns that served as intermediaries between imperial capitals (such as
Istanbul under the Ottoman Turks) and provincial society.
The top book prize in the
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...
field is named the
Albert Hourani Book Award The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) offers four book awards at its fall annual conference.
Albert Hourani Book Award
The Albert Hourani Book Award is an award honoring scholarly non-fiction books, given by the Middle East St ...
and it is given annually by the
Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). Hourani was an Honorary Fellow of both MESA and the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
(AHA).
Among his students are
Abbas Amanat
Abbas Amanat ( fa, عباس امانت) is an Iranian-born American historian, scholar, author, editor, and professor. He serves as the William Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Yale Program in Iranian Stu ...
,
Nazih Ayubi,
Aziz al-Azmeh,
Michael Gilsenan,
Rashid Khalidi,
Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot,
Roger Owen, and
André Raymond (and others).
Personal life
In 1955 Hourani married Christine Mary Odile Wegg-Prosser (1914–2003), while teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford. He died in Oxford in 1993 at the age of 77. His widow died in 2003 at the age of 89. Both are buried in
Wolvercote Cemetery
Wolvercote Cemetery is a cemetery in the parish of Wolvercote and district of Cutteslowe in Oxford, England. Its main entrance is on Banbury Road and it has a side entrance in Five Mile Drive. It has a funeral chapel, public toilets and a small a ...
in Oxford.
They had a daughter, Susanna Hourani, who became professor of
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
and Head of Department in the School of
Biomedical
Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine) and
Molecular Sciences of the
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institu ...
.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hourani, Albert
1915 births
1993 deaths
Burials at Wolvercote Cemetery
20th-century English historians
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism
English people of Lebanese descent
English orientalists
English Roman Catholics
Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford
Harvard University faculty
Historians of the Middle East
Lebanese orientalists
Lebanese Roman Catholics
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
People educated at Mill Hill School
People from Didsbury
University of Pennsylvania faculty