Irfan Arif Shahîd ( ; January 15, 1926 – November 9, 2016), also known as Erfan Arif Kawar ( ), was an American professor and scholar in the field of

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

. Between 1982 and 2016, he was the Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Literature at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. Shahîd also became a Fellow of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

in 2012.

Biography

Shahîd was born in

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, to a family of Palestinian Christians. He left in 1946 to attend

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, 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 foun ...

, where he studied

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and Greco-Roman history under the renowned British historian A. N. Sherwin-White. He received his PhD from

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 ...

in Arabic and Islamic Studies. His doctorate thesis was "Early Islam and Poetry" and his research was primarily focused on three major areas: the area where the Greco-Roman world, especially the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, meets the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Islamic worlds in the

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

and

medieval times In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

;

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

, particularly the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

; and

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

, especially classical and medieval Arabic poetry.

Selected works

*
Rome and the Arabs: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Byzantium and the Arabs
', 1984 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in The Fourth Century
', 1984 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century
', 1989 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
', Volume 1, part 1, 1995 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
', Volume 1, part 2, 1995 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
', Volume 2, Part 1, 2002 *
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
', Volume 2, Part 2, 2010 *''Byzantium and the Semitic Orient Before the Rise of Islam'' (Collected Studies Series: No.Cs270), 1988 *''

Omar Khayyám Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) ( Persian: غیاث الدین ابوالفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابورﻯ), commonly known as Omar Khayyam (), was ...

, the Philosopher-Poet of Medieval Islam'', 1982 *

References

External links

* As enacted, S. 1483 is Private Law 536, 84th Congress (70 Stat. A18)
"59 - Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill for the Relief of Irfan Kawar."
, ''The American Presidency Project'', Washington DC, 19 March 1956. Retrieved on 22 August 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shahid, Irfan 1926 births 2016 deaths People from Nazareth Christian scholars of Islam Palestinian Christians Palestinian Byzantinists Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Princeton University alumni Georgetown University faculty Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Scholars of Byzantine history