Irfan Shahîd

Irfan Arif Shahîd (Arabic: عرفان عارف شهيد‎; Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine, January 15, 1926 – Washington, D.C., November 9, 2016),[1] born as Erfan Arif Qa'war (عرفان عارف قعوار), was a scholar in the field of Oriental studies. He was from 1982 until his death professor emeritus at Georgetown University,[2] where he had been the Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Literature. Shahîd was also a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America since 2012.[3]

Erfan Arif
Born	Erfan Arif January 15, 1926 Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine
Died	November 9, 2016 (aged 90) Washington, D.C., U.S
Citizenship	United States
Education	St John's College, Oxford (B.A.) Princeton University (Ph.D.)
Occupation	Professor
Known for	Professor emeritus at Georgetown University

Biography

Erfan Arif was born in Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine to a Palestinian Christian family. He left in 1946 to attend St John's College, Oxford, where he read classics and Greco-Roman history. He studied under renowned antiquities historian A. N. Sherwin-White.[2]

He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in Arabic and Islamic Studies. His doctorate thesis was “Early Islam and Poetry.” Erfan's research was primarily focused on three major areas: the area where the Greco-Roman world, especially the Byzantine Empire, meets the Arabic and Islamic worlds in the late antique and medieval times, Islamic studies, particularly the Quran and Arabic literature, especially classical and medieval Arabic poetry.[4] In 2012 Erfan Arif became a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America[5]

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, the Philosopher-Poet of Medieval Islam, 1982
• Shahîd, Irfan (1971). The Martyrs of Najran - New Documents. Bruxelles, Belgium: Société des Bollandistes.

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2016-11-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Oral History Interview with Irfan Shahîd". Dumbarton Oaks. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
3. "Association of Main-Campus Retired Faculty". Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 2015-06-12.
4. "Lectures by Irfan Shahid". University of California-Los Angeles. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-12. Retrieved 2011-09-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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.