Historical Figures Codexery

Bernard Lewis

Historian of Islam and controversial public intellectual.

Lewis's policy advice was sought by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials.[1]

Quick Facts

Born
31 May 1916
Birthplace
London, England
Died
19 May 2018
Place of death
Voorhees Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Main interests
Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies
Major works
  • The Jews of Islam (1984)
  • Islam and the West (1993)
  • What Went Wrong? (2002)
Doctoral students
Feroz Ahmad
Influenced
Heath W. Lowry, Fouad Ajami

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

He graduated from the University of London's School of Oriental Studies in 1936 with a BA in history.[2] Lewis came into the world on 31 May 1916 in Stoke Newington, London, to Harry and Jane (née Levy) Lewis, a middle-class British Jewish couple.[3]

What the cited sources add

AbuKhalil also stated that Lewis assured Cheney that Iraqis and Arabs would joyously greet invading American troops.[4] AbuKhalil noted that Lewis had ties to the Shah's government and the Turkish military dictatorship.[4] Hirsh wrote that Lewis's Kemalist vision of a secularized Arab democracy remained the core of George W. Bush's vision in Iraq.[5] As'ad AbuKhalil wrote that Lewis was one of the most politically—not academically—influential Orientalists in modern times.[4]

AbuKhalil further argued that Lewis's work exhibited what French historian Maxime Rodinson called "theologocentrism," attributing all observable phenomena among Muslims to Islamic theology.[4]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Bernard Lewis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beinin, "Review of Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice by Bernard Lewis", MERIP Middle East Report, July 1987, p. 42–45; Humphreys, "Bernard Lewis: An Appreciation", Humanities, May–June 1990, p. 17–20; "Remarks by Vice President Cheney at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia Luncheon Honoring Professor Bernard Lewis", The White House, 2 May 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Bernard Lewis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Bernard Lewis Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus", princeton.edu (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Bernard Lewis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lewis, Bernard 1916", Encyclopedia.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. AbuKhalil, "The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis", consortiumnews.com, 29 June 2018. facts only, no text reused. consortiumnews.com
  5. Hirsh, "Bernard Lewis Revisited", Washington Monthly, November 2004. facts only, no text reused. washingtonmonthly.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bernard Lewis (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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