Gustave Edmund von Grunebaum (1 September 1909 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria – 27 February 1972 in

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, Cal., born ''Gustav Edmund

Ritter Ritter (German for "knight") is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest rank within the nobility, standing above "Edler" and below "Freiherr" (Baron). As with most titles an ...

von Grünebaum''Österreichische Soziologinnen und Soziologen im Exil 1933 bis 1945
, Archive for the History of Sociology in Austria) was an Austrian

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 stu ...

and

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in medieval Muslim Spain, which lay on the ...

. Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Grunebaum received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in Oriental Studies at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in 1931 with a dissertation on classical Arabic poetry. When

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absorbed Austria in the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

of 1938, he went to the United States, where he was given a position at the Asia Institute in

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Arthur Upham Pope Arthur Upham Pope (February 7, 1881 – September 3, 1969) was an American scholar, art historian, and architecture historian. He was an expert on historical Persian art, and he was the editor of the ''Survey of Persian Art'' (1939). Pope was also ...

, an eminent authority on Persian art and antiquities who used the institute to help a number of displaced German scholars find work in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1943, he moved on to the

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 was made professor of Arabic in 1949. In 1957, Grunebaum was appointed professor of Near Eastern History and the director of a new department called the Near Eastern Center at

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. He was elected to the

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in 1963 and the

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in 1968. He died in Los Angeles at the age of 62 following brief battle with cancer. The Near Eastern Center was later renamed in Grunebaum's honor. Grunebaum was married to Giselle Steuerman.

Notes

Books

* 1937, Islam and medieval Hellenism: social and cultural perspectives * 1953, Medieval Islam * 1955, In Search of Wealth: A Study of the Emergence of Commercial Operations in the Melanesian Society of Southeastern Papua (co-authored with Cyril S Belshaw and Joe Ben Wheat) * 1964, Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity * 1964, French African literature: some cultural implications * 1964, Parallelism, Convergence, and Influence in the Relations of Arab and Byzantine Philosophy, Literature, and Piety * 1965, Islam: experience of the holy and concept of man * 1971, Theology and law in Islam * 1971, Arabic poetry. Theory and development (editor) * 1981 (reprint), Themes in medieval Arabic literature * 2003, Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning (co-authored with Burhān al-Dīn Zarnūjī and Theodora Mead Abel) * 2005 (reprint), Classical Islam: A History, 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D., 1972 * 2008 (reprint), Mohammedan Festivals * 2011 (reprint), A Tenth Century Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism: The Sections on Poetry of Al-Baqillani's I'jaz Al-Qur'an

Articles

* 'Toynbee’s Concept of Islamic Civilization’ in Gargan, Edward T., ed., ''The Intent of Toynbee’s History : A Cooperative Appraisal'' (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1955).

External links

In Memoriam: Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, 1909-1972
20th-century Austrian historians Austrian knights Austrian Arabists 1909 births 1972 deaths Emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss {{Austria-historian-stub Members of the American Philosophical Society