The History Department is saddened to announce the passing of our colleague, Prof. Hisham B. Sharabi. Dr. Sharabi, Professor Emeritus of History and Umar al-Mukhtar Chair of Arab Culture, passed away on January 13, 2005, at the American University of Beirut Hospital. A specialist in European intellectual history and social thought, Dr. Sharabi was also one of the most influential and prominent Arab intellectuals of the 20th century. He believed the proper role of the Arab intellectual was engagement with the issues facing the contemporary Arab world and was an outspoken and tireless champion of the Palestinian people, the poor, and of women’s rights. Among his most well-known works in English are Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society (Oxford University Press, 1988), a provocative theory about sociopolitical underdevelopment in the Arab world, and his edited volume Theory, Politics and the Arab World: Critical Responses (Routledge, 1990), a book that is used across college campuses in the United States.
