Fuad Ishaq Khuri ( ar, فؤاد الخوري; 1935 – 4 May 2003) was a Lebanese

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and writer. He was professor of anthropology 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 ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

from 1964 to 1987. Due to the worsening

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

at the time, Khuri left the country for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and held a series of

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

ships at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. His books ''From Village to Suburb'' and ''Tribe and State in Bahrain'' are considered pioneering works in the field of Arab anthropology. Khuri was widely considered as a prominent scholar on Arab sociology and politics.

Biography

Khuri was born in 1935 as a

Lebanese Christian Christianity in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. Biblical Scriptures purport that Peter and Paul Evangelism, evangelized the Phoenicians, whom they affiliated to the ancient patriarchate of Antioch. The spread of Christianity in L ...

. He earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in anthropology at the

(AUB). In 1964, Khuri completed his PhD in

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

at the University of Oregon, with his thesis being on the influence of men in

Magburaka Magburaka is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Tonkolili District in the Northern Province, Sierra Leone, Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its population was 16,313 in the 2004 census. and a current estimate of 40,313. It is ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. He later joined AUB as an instructor in the same year and was later promoted to assistant professor in 1965. Khuri became associate professor in 1971, placed on

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

in 1972, and then promoted to

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in 1978. As a professor, he served multiple terms as chairperson of the university's Department of Sociology and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In 1975, Khuri published ''From Village to Suburb: Order and Change in Greater

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

'', widely regarded as a pioneering case study of

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

in the Middle East by an Arab anthropologist. In particular, his analysis of suburbs in relation to Middle Eastern classes of

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

, family, and

social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...

was well-received. In 1980, he published ''Tribe and State in

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

'', a detailed sociopolitical analysis of the Middle East's smallest country based on a year-long field trip undertaken by Khuri in 1974-75. The book chronicles Bahrain's pre-modern history and proved controversial to the

Bahraini government The Cabinet of Bahrain is the chief executive body of the Kingdom of Bahrain. According to Article 32 (b) of the 2002 Constitution, "executive authority is vested in the King together with the Council of Ministers and Ministers". The Council of M ...

as the book was banned in the country despite high demand. Due to escalations in the

in 1987, Khuri resigned as professor and relocated with his family to the town of

Reading, England Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. From 1987 to 1992, he worked as the director of the Issam Fares Foundation on behalf of his Lebanese friend and businessman,

Issam Fares Issam Fares (born 1937) is a Lebanese businessman, a former member of the Lebanese Parliament and deputy prime minister of Lebanon. In 1954, at the age of seventeen, Fares left his homeland and found a job as a clerk at a catering and food servic ...

. After 1992, he began to solely concentrate on

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. Over the course of his career, Khuri authored 17 books and 40 articles on

Arab culture Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The various religions the Arab ...

Personal life

Fuad Khuri was married to Sonia Jalbout Khuri, an

AUB Aub () is a city in the district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated southeast of Würzburg, and northwest of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and, nearby the border of Baden-Württemberg. The river Gollach is the main body of water. Au ...

graduate of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

who taught the field in both Lebanon and the UK. She also worked as Fuad's research assistant and editor to his books. In his later years while stricken with illness, Sonia would accompany Fuad on his field trips and scribe his notes. Khuri died on 4 May 2003 at the age of 68 and was survived by his wife and two children.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khuri, Fuad Lebanese anthropologists 1935 births 2003 deaths 20th-century anthropologists