Tarif Khalidi: The Biographical Tradition in pre-Modern Arabic Literature

Tarif Khalidi: The Biographical Tradition in pre-Modern Arabic Literature

11 March 2022

First keynote lecture in the run up to the Summer School Moving Biography

Wednesday, 30 March 2022, 6-7.30pm (UTC+3)
Orient-Institut Beirut

Abstract

This is an attempt to examine in the broadest terms the biographical tradition in pre-Modern Arabic Literature from approximately the eighth century to approximately the fifteenth centuries A.D. It will endeavor, first, to explore the various technical terms of this tradition, then sketch a short his history of its evolution and, finally, will seek to consider issues of style, content and dimensions of the human personality.

About the speaker

Tarif Khalidi is Shaykh Zayed Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, at the American University of Beirut. Previously he was Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic and a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. His publications include Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (Cambridge University Press, 1994), The Muslim Jesus (Harvard UP 2001) and Images of Muhammad (Doubleday, NY, 2008).