Philip Khuri Hitti (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: فيليب خوري حتي), (
Shimlan
Shemlan ( ar, شملان), (also spelled Chemlane, Chimlane, Shimlan) is a village in the Aley District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon, located about 25 km from Beirut.
History
Shemlan is first mentioned in chronicles as early a ...
22 June 1886 –
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
24 December 1978) was a
Lebanese-American professor and scholar at
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, and authority on
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
and
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
ern history,
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
, and
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...
. He almost single-handedly created the discipline of
Arabic studies
Arab studies or Arabic studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Arabs and Arab World. It consists of several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, historiography, archaeology, cultural studies, economics, ...
in the United States. His grandniece was the now deceased
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
astronaut and schoolteacher
Christa McAuliffe
Sharon Christa McAuliffe ( Corrigan; September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire, who was killed on the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L where she was serving as a ...
.
Biography
Early life
Hitti was born in
Ottoman 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 lie ...
into a
Maronite Christian family, in the village of
Shemlan
Shemlan ( ar, شملان), (also spelled Chemlane, Chimlane, Shimlan) is a village in the Aley District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon, located about 25 km from Beirut.
History
Shemlan is first mentioned in chronicles as early as ...
some 25 km southeast from
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 ...
, up in
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at .
Geography
The Mount Le ...
.
Education and academic career
He was educated at an American
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
mission school at
Suq al-Gharb and then 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 ...
(AUB). After graduating in 1908 he taught at the American University of Beirut before moving to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
where he earned his PhD in 1915 and taught
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...
. After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
he returned to AUB and taught there until 1926. In February 1926 he was offered a Chair at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, which he held until he retired in 1954. During
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 taught Arabic to servicemen at Princeton through the
Army Specialized Training Program (including future Ambassador
Rodger Paul Davies). Hitti was both Professor of Semitic Literature and Chairman of the Department of Oriental Languages. After formal retirement he accepted a position at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. He also taught in the summer schools at the University of Utah and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He subsequently held a research position at the University of Minnesota.
Opinion on Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine
In 1944 before a U. S. House committee, Hitti gave testimony in support of the view that there was no historical justification for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. His testimony was reprinted in the ''Princeton Herald''. In response,
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
and his friend and colleague
Erich Kahler jointly replied in the same newspaper with their counter-arguments. Hitti then published a response and Einstein and Kahler concluded the debate in the ''Princeton Herald'' with their second response. In 1945 Hitti served as an adviser to the Iraqi delegation at the
San Francisco Conference which established the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
. In 1946, Hitti was the first Lebanese-American witness at 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- ...
on Palestine.
Bartley Crum
Bartley Crum (November 28, 1900 – December 9, 1959) was an American lawyer who became prominent as a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, his book on that experience, and for defending targets of HUAC, particularly the Hollywood Te ...
, an American member of the committee, recalled that
Hitti... explained that there was actually no such entity as Palestine - never had been; it was historically part of Syria, and "the Sunday schools have done a great deal of harm to us because by smearing the walls of classrooms with maps of Palestine, they associate it with the Jews in the minds of the average American and Englishman."
He traced the history of Palestine back 7000 years. All that time, he said, it had been the immemorial home of the Arabs. He asserted that Zionism was indefensible and unfeasible on moral, historic and practical grounds. It was an imposition on the Arabs of an alien way of life which they resented and to which they would never submit.
Works
* ''
The Syrians in America'' (1924)
*''
The origins of the Druze people and religion: with extracts from their sacred writings'' (1928)
*''
An Arab-Syrian Gentleman in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah ibn-Munqidh'' (1929)
*''
History of the Arabs'' (1937)
*''
The Arabs: A Short History'' (1943)
*''
History of Syria: including Lebanon and Palestine'' (1951)
* ''Syria: A Short History'' (1959), the condensed version of the 1951 ''History of Syria: including Lebanon and Palestine''
*''
The Near East in History'' (1961)
*''
Islam and the West
''Islam and the West'' is a 1993 book written by Middle-East historian and scholar Bernard Lewis.
The book deals with the relations between Islam and Western civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of i ...
'' (1962)
*''
Lebanon in History'' (1957)
*''
Makers of Arab History'' (1968)
*''
Islam: A Way of Life'' (1970)
*''
Capital cities of Arab Islam'' (1973)
See also
*
Islamic scholars
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
*
Jawad Ali
References
External links
*Finding aid for th
Philip Khuri Hitti papersat th
Immigration History Research Center Archives University of Minnesota Libraries.
*A selection o
letters and photographsfrom th
Philip Khuri Hitti papershave been digitized and are available through th
project
Immigration History Research Center Archives University of Minnesota Libraries.
A Talk With Philip Hitti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitti, Philip Khuri
Arabs from the Ottoman Empire
Historians of the Middle East
1886 births
1978 deaths
Harvard University staff
University of Utah faculty
Lebanese Maronites
American University of Beirut alumni
20th-century Lebanese historians
American University of Beirut faculty
Orientalists
Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
Arabic–English translators