Alfred Guillaume (8 November 1888 – 30 November 1965) was a British Christian Arabist, scholar of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and Islam.

Career

Guillaume was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, the son of Alfred Guillaume. He took up Arabic after studying Theology and Oriental Languages at the Wadham College, Oxford. In the First World War, he served in France and then in the Arab Bureau in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Guillaume was a Christian and later ordained. He became Professor of Arabic and the Head of the Department of the Near and Middle East in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He was later visiting professor of Arabic at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, New Jersey. He was a professor of Hebrew at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

from 1920 to 1930. In the winter 1944–45, during the Second World War the British Council invited him to accept a visiting professorship at the American University of Beirut where he greatly enlarged his circle of Muslim friends. The Arab Academy of Damascus (1949) and the Royal Academy of Baghdad (1950) honoured him by electing him to their number, and the University of Istanbul chose him as their first foreign lecturer on Christian and Islamic theology. In the autumn of 1945, Guillaume succeeded his friend S. H. Hooke on the Samuel Davidson chair at the University of London, changing to the chair in Arabic in 1947 (at SOAS), and was also a professor of Hebrew from 1947 to 1955. In 1955, Guillaume served as president to the Society for Old Testament Study. In 1916, he married Margaret Woodfield Leadbitter, daughter of Rev. William Oram Leadbitter, and they had two sons and two daughters. He died in Wallingford, Berkshire at age 77.

Works

He was best known as the author of ''Islam'', published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, and as co-author, with Sir Thomas Arnold, of ''The Legacy of Islam'', in the ''Legacy'' series, which has been translated into several languages. He also translated Ibn Ishaq's " Sirah Rasul Allah", published as ''The Life of Muhammad. A translation of Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah"''.
''The Traditions of Islam: An Introduction to the Study of the Hadith literature''
(1924). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
''The Legacy of Islam''
(with Thomas Arnold) (1931). Oxford, Clarendon Press. *''Kitāb Nihājat al-iqdām fī ʿilm al-kalām'' / Abu-ʾl-Fatḥ Muḥammad Ibn-ʿAbd-al-Karīm aš- Šahrastānī (1934). Oxford University Press. *''Prophecy and Divination Among the Hebrews and Other Semites'' ( Bampton Lectures) (1938). London: Hodder & Stoughton *''Islam'' (1954). Hammondsworth, Penguin. *''The Life of Muhammad'' (1955). Oxford University Press. ** Later editions includ
''The Life of Muhammad''
(1967). *''Hebrew and Arabic lexicography'' (1965). Leiden: Brill.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillaume, Alfred 1888 births 1965 deaths British Arabists British orientalists Christian scholars of Islam Academics of SOAS University of London 20th-century British writers British military personnel of World War I Arab Bureau officers Academics of Durham University Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study

Career

Works

See also

References