Kamal Salibi
Professor Kamal Salibi | |
---|---|
![]() Salibi in April 2009 | |
Born | Kamal Suleiman Salibi 2 May 1929 |
Died | 1 September 2011 Beirut, Lebanon | (aged 82)
Nationality | Lebanese |
Occupation(s) | Historian, academic, researcher |
Kamal Suleiman Salibi (
Career
Born to a
After his graduation from SOAS, Salibi joined AUB as bibliographer of the Arab Studies Program. He then became professor in the Department of History and Archaeology where he joined other prominent and already established historians such as Nicholas Ziadeh and Zein Zein. In 1965, he published The Modern History of Lebanon, which was subsequently translated into Arabic, Russian, and French.[citation needed]
In 1982 Salibi finalised his book, The Bible Came from Arabia, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.[9] It was translated into German at the same time as the original English version was being published in London. Salibi wrote subsequent works on biblical issues using the same etymological and geographic methodology. Some of his books are today considered classics, notably A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered (1988) and The Modern History of Jordan (1993). In 1994, Salibi helped found the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies[3] in Amman, Jordan, and became its director from 1997 until 2004, following his retirement from AUB. He was associated as a consultant with the Druze Heritage Foundation.[10] He retired from the Department of History and Archeology at the American University of Beirut in 1998, and became professor emeritus.[11] He moved to Amman in the early 1990s and became director of the Institute for Interfaith Studies there from 1994 to 2003. He believed Lebanon's Christian community had an important role to play in building a Lebanon distinct from its Islamic ambiance, but did not share the fanaticism about Lebanon's Christian nature shown by many of his Maronite colleagues.[12] He dismantled the foundational myths which many of Lebanon's communities were attached to, and replaced them with a complex portrait of the nation as an intricate mosaic of disparate but interconnected communities, over which no one group exerted dominance.[13] He was strongly opposed to sectarian politics, believing that it had been the ruin of his country, and was one of the first Lebanese to remove his religious denomination (math-hab) from the Lebanese census records. He pinned a copy of his new ID, which has 'I' for his math-hab outside his apartment in Ras Beirut.[14]
Arabian Judah theory
Kamal Salibi wrote three books advocating the controversial "Israel in Arabia" theory. In this view, the place names of the
His theory has been both attacked and supported for its supposed implications for modern political affairs, although Salibi himself made no such connection. Tudor Parfitt wrote "It is dangerous because Salibi's ideas have all sorts of implications, not least in terms of the legitimacy of the State of Israel".[16]
The (literally) central identification of the theory is that the geographical feature referred to as הירדן, the "Jordan", which is usually taken to refer to the
Salibi argued that early
The location of the
The theory is considered to be a
Works
- Maronite Historians of Mediaeval Lebanon, Beirut, AUB Oriental Series 34, 1959
- The Modern History of Lebanon, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965
- Crossroads to Civil War, Lebanon 1958-1976, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1976
- Syria under Islam: Empire on Trial 634-1097, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1977
- A History of Arabia, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1980
- The Bible Came from Arabia, London, Jonathan Cape, 1985
- Secrets of the Bible People, London, Saqi Books, 1988
- Who Was Jesus?: Conspiracy in Jerusalem, London, I.B. Tauris, 1988
- A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered, London, I.B. Tauris, 1988
- The Historicity of Biblical Israel, London, NABU Publications, 1998
- The Historicity of Biblical Israel (second edition), Beirut, Dar Nelson, 2009
- The Modern History of Jordan, London, I.B. Tauris, 1993
- A Bird on an Oak Tree (Arabic طائر على سنديانة), Amman, Ashshoroq Publishers, 2002
References
- ^ Lebanese historian Salibi died at 82 ilouban.com, 1 September 2011.
- The Daily Star, 1 September 2011.
- ^ a b Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies
- Rabinowitz, Itamar, 'Eulogy for a Lebanese intellectual:On the death of historian Kamal Salibi,' in Haaretz, 29 September 2011
- ^ Tom Segev, The Makings of History/Myths and facts, Haaretz, 16 September 2011.
- ^ Sbaiti, Nadya and Mikdashi, Maya, 'Kamal Salibi (1929–2011),' in Jadaliyya, 6 September 2011
- ^ Segev, 2011.
- ^ Sbaiti, Nadya and Mikdashi, 2011
- ^ Segev,2011
- ^ Druze Heritage Foundation
- ^ Sbaiti, Nadya and Mikdashi, Maya, 2011
- ^ a b Rabinowitz, 2011.
- ^ Sbaita & Makdishi, 2011.
- ^ Sbaiti & Makdishi, 2011.
- ^ a b c Segev, 2011
- ^ a b Parfitt, Tudor, "The hijacking of Israel", The Sunday Times (London) 27 October 1985
- ^ Salibi, Kamal (1985). The Bible Came from Arabia. London: Jonathan Cape.
- ^ Salbi's theory is the subject of a mystery-novel by G. Behrens, The Bible Murder, Bloomington/IN 2016
- Royal Asiatic Society(1988, pp. 389–93)
- ^ Hammond's Rreview
- Anderson, Brooke Friends remember Lebanese historian for his generosity and storytelling,' The Daily Star, 1 September 2011
- Royal Asiatic Society(1988, pp. 389–93)
- Berry, Steve. "The Alexandria Link" Hodder & Stoughton, 2007; fiction. A thriller using Salibi's theory as a plot device.
- Cardinal, P., "La Bible et L'Arabie", Revue d'études Palestiniennes vol. 7 No. 26 (winter 1988) pp. 63–70
- Dahlberg, Bruce, Comments in the Ancient Near East Digest, 1994.
- Parfitt, Tudor, "The hijacking of Israel", The Sunday Times (London) 27 October 1985
- Rabinowitz, Itamar, 'Eulogy for a Lebanese intellectual:On the death of historian Kamal Salibi,' in Haaretz, 29 September 2011.
- Salamé-Sarkis, H., "Et si la Bible venait d'Arabie?", Berytus, Beirut 1985 XXXIII pp. 143–165
- Sbaiti, Nadya and Mikdashi, Maya, 'Kamal Salibi (1929–2011),' in Jadaliyya, 6 September 2011
- Segev, Tom, 'The Makings of History / Myths and facts,' in Haaretz 16 September 2011.
- Towner, W. Sibley, Review of "The Bible Came from Arabia", Middle East Journal1988, 42 pp. 511–513
External links
- Official website
- Phillip C. Hammond's 1990 Review of The Bible Came from Arabia The International Journal of Middle East Studies (August, 1990)
- "Kamal Salibi and the "Israel from Yemen" theory". baheyeldin.com.
Other references
- Biella, Joan (2004) Dictionary of Old South Arabian – Sabaean Dialect Eisenbrauns, Winola Lake, Indiana, US
- Hubbard, David (1956) The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast PhD dissertation., St.Andrews University, Scotland
- Leslau, Wolf (1991) Comparative Dictionary of Ge’ez Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany
- Rabin, Chaim (1951) Ancient West Arabian London: Taylor's Foreign Press
- Savoie, Denis (2009), Sundials: Design, Construction, and Use Springer Praxis, ISBN 978-0-387-09801-2(see pp. 163–164)
- Schneider, Roger (1973) Deux inscriptions subarabiques du Tigre. Leiden, Netherlands: Bibliotheca Orientalis, 30, 1973, 385-387
- Ullendorff, Edward (1956) Hebraic Jewish Elements in Abyssinian (Monophysite) Christianity in Journal of Semitic Studies, 1, no.3, 216-256
- Ullendorff, Edward (1960) The Ethiopians London: Oxford University Press
- Ullendorff, Edward (1968) Ethiopia and the Bible London: Oxford University Press