R. Stephen Humphreys is an American historian specializing in the history of

Southwest Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Anat ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. He was the 'Abd al-Aziz al-Sa'ud Professor at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

and is now an emeritus professor at that institution. Humphreys received a PhD from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1969. Humphreys' ''Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age'' has been widely reviewed and cited as a good introductory work on the region. He has also written a history of the

Ayyubids The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin h ...

, ''From Saladin to the Mongols'' (1977), and a biography of the first

Umayyad caliph The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...

, ''Mu'awiya ibn abi Sufyan: From Arabia to Empire'' (2006). A

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

was published in Humphreys' honor by the Darwin Press based on lectures given at a conference at the

College of St. Benedict The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University are two closely related private, Catholic higher education institutions in Minnesota. The College of Saint Benedict is a women's college located in St. Joseph, while Saint John's Univ ...

in Minnesota.

Sources

*Contributor listing, ''The Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol. 1, Islamic Egypt 640-1517'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Humphreys, R. Stephen Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Michigan alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty American male non-fiction writers