H.A.R. Gibb
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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, to Alexander Crawford Gibb, the son of John Gibb of Gladstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and Jane Ann Gardner of
Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, Scotland. His father died in 1897, following which his mother took up a teaching position in Alexandria. Hamilton returned to Scotland for his formal education at the age of five: first, four years of private tuition, after which he started at the Royal High School, Edinburgh in 1904, staying until 1912. His education was focused on
classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, though it included French, German, and physical sciences. In 1912, Hamilton matriculated at University of Edinburgh, joining the new honours program in Semitic languages ( Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic). Hamilton's mother died in 1913 while he was studying in his second year at university. He had two brothers, Euston Gibb and Archibald Gibb.(family knowledge)


Military service

During World War I, Gibb broke off his studies at the University of Edinburgh to serve for the Royal Artillery of the United Kingdom in France from February 1917 and for several months in Italy as a
commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
. He was commissioned at the age of 19. He was awarded a "war privilege" undergraduate Master of Arts (MA) because of his service until the Armistice of 11 November 1918.


Academic career

After the war Gibb studied Arabic at SOAS University of London, gaining his postgraduate MA in 1922. His MA thesis, published later by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland as a monograph, was on the
Muslim conquest of Transoxiana The Muslim conquest of Transoxiana or Arab conquest of Transoxiana were the 7th and 8th century conquests, by Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs, of Transoxiana, the land between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers, a part of Central A ...
. From 1921 to 1937 Gibb taught Arabic literature at the then School of Oriental Studies, guided by Professor
Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wide ...
, becoming a professor there in 1930."H.A.R. Gibb," '' Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', 3rd Edition (1970–1979). During this time he was an editor of the ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...
''. Among his students was the British Arabist and Reader in Arabic, James Heyworth-Dunne. In 1937 Gibb succeeded
David Samuel Margoliouth David Samuel Margoliouth, FBA (; 17 October 1858, in London – 22 March 1940, in London) was an English orientalist. He was briefly active as a priest in the Church of England. He was Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford ...
as Laudian Professor of Arabic with a Fellowship at
St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...
, where he stayed for eighteen years. In 1955, Gibb became the James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and University Professor at Harvard University. He became director of the Center for Middle East Studies in 1957, and retired in 1963. H. A. R. Gibb was one of the trustees of the
E. J. W. Gibb Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (3 June 1857 - 5 December 1901) was a Scottish Oriental studies, orientalist. Gibb was born 3 June 1857 in Glasgow, at 25 Newton Place, to Elias John Gibb and Jane Gilman. He was educated by Collier and matriculated fro ...
Memorial, an organisation which since 1905 has published the Gibb Memorial Series.


Research

Gibb worked in three areas, Arabic literature and language, Islamic history and institutions, and Islam. After ''The Arab Conquests in Central Asia,'' his first major work was ''Arabic Literature – An Introduction'' (1926). His most important work on Islam was ''Modern Trends in Islam'' (1947) and ''Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey'' (1949), later republished as ''Islam: An Historical Survey''. One of his major late works was ''Studies on the Civilization of Islam'' (1962),


Personal life

Also in 1922 Gibb married Helen Jessie Stark. They had one son, Ian (1923–2005), and one daughter, Dorothy (1926–2006, now Dorothy Greenslade). Gibb died on 22 October 1971.


Associations

* Fellow of British Academy, Danish Academy, American Philosophical Society * Honorary fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Medieval Academy of America * Member of Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo,
Institut d'Egypte An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institute, research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countr ...
(Associate Member),
Arab Academy of Damascus Arab Academy of Damascus ( ar, مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق) is the oldest academy regulating the Arabic language, established in 1918 during the reign of Faisal I of Syria. It is based in al-Adiliyah Madrasa and is modeled on the ...
(Honorary), Iraqi Academy of Sciences


Bibliography

* ''Ottoman Poems Translated into English Verse in the Original Forms'' (1882), Trübner & Company. * ''A History of Ottoman Poetry'' (vol. 1 1900 - vol. 6 1909), Luzac and Company. * ''The Arab Conquests in Central Asia'' (1923), The Royal Asiatic Society. * ''Arabic Literature – An Introduction'' (1926), also (1963), Clarendon Press and (1974), Oxford University Press. * '' Ibn Batuta, 1304–1377'
''Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-I354
', trans. and selected by Gibb, Hamilton Alexander Roskeen (London: Routledge, 1929), ( ar, Tuhfat al-'anzar fi ghara'ib al-'amsar).
''Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354''
(1929), translated and selected with an introduction and notes, R. M. McBride.

(1939), from
Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...
, '' A Study of History'', Part I. ''C'' I (''b'') ''Annex I'', p. 400-02. * ''Modern Trends in Islam'' (1947). * ''Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey'' (1949) retitled ''Islam: An Historical Survey'' (1980), Oxford.
Online Chapter The Koran


* ''Islamic Society and the West'' with Harold Bowen (vol. 1 1950, vol. 2 1957). * ''Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam'' (1953), edited with J. H. Kramers,
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. * '' The Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (1954– ), new ed. Edited by a number of leading orientalists, including Gibb, under the patronage of the
International Union of Academies International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
. Leiden: Brill, along with that edited by J. H. Kramers, and E. Levi-Provençal. * "Islamic Biographical Literature," (1962) in ''Historians of the Middle East'', eds. Bernard Lewis and P. M. Holt, Oxford U. Press. * ''Studies on the Civilization of Islam'' (1962), Princeton U. Press * ''The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades. Extracted and translated from the Chronicle of ibn al-Qalānisi'', Luzac & Company, London, 1932.


Citations


External links


Harvard Library: Gibb Islamic Seminar Library

Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb Papers, Harvard University ArchivesWorks by Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb
at Project Gutenberg {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibb, Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen 1895 births 1971 deaths 20th-century British historians People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish Arabists Scottish orientalists Historians of Central Asia British Army personnel of World War I British expatriates in Egypt Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Harvard University faculty Historians of Islam Knights Bachelor People from Alexandria Royal Artillery officers Scottish expatriates in the United States Scottish scholars and academics Laudian Professors of Arabic Arabic–English translators