Abdel Wahab Elmessiri
Encyclopedia
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri was an Egypt
ian scholar, author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya.
Elmessiri was born in Damanhur
, Egypt, graduated with a BA in English literature
from Alexandria University
in 1959. He received a MA
in English and comparative literature
from Columbia University
in 1964 and a PhD in the same field from Rutgers University
in 1969. He was professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Ain Shams University
, Egypt since 1988. He was also a University Professor at King Saud University
, Saudi Arabia
(1983–1988) and at Kuwait University
, Kuwait
(1988–1989) and a visiting Professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia
. He is considered as one of Egypt's most famous thinkers and very well known among Arab scholars.
Elmessiri's major areas of research included: Jews, Judaism and Zionism
; secularism
and prejudice; Western culture and contemporaneity; modernism
and postmodernism
; literary theory
and comparative literature
. Over the course of his life his outlook moved from western secularism to a modern islamic vision. Elmessiri wrote several articles about his ideas, including "Chosen Community, an Exceptional Burden", "A People Like Any other". He has also written for children.
His eight-volume Encyclopaedia of "Jews, Judaism and Zionism" (" موسوعة اليهود واليهودية والصهيونية: نموذج تفسيري جديد"), written in Arabic with an analytical/methodological form rather than an encyclopedic collection of information, is intended to provide analysis of the middle east crisis, the history of Jews and the history of Zionism, as well as an in-depth analysis of Zionism, its Ideology and beliefs, and ultimately the goals of such movement.
On July 2, 2008 he died after a very long battle against cancer at the Palestine Hospital, Cairo
.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian scholar, author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya.
Elmessiri was born in Damanhur
Damanhur
Damanhur is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located northwest of Cairo, and E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta....
, Egypt, graduated with a BA in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
from Alexandria University
Alexandria University
Alexandria University is a university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fuad University , becoming an independent entity in 1942. It was known as Farouk University until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 when its name was changed to the University of Alexandria...
in 1959. He received a MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in English and comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1964 and a PhD in the same field from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in 1969. He was professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Ain Shams University
Ain Shams University
Ain Shams University is an institute of higher education located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels.-History:...
, Egypt since 1988. He was also a University Professor at King Saud University
King Saud University
King Saud University is a public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdul Aziz as Riyadh University, as the first university in the kingdom not dedicated to religious subjects. The university was created to meet the shortage of skilled workers in...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
(1983–1988) and at Kuwait University
Kuwait University
Kuwait University was established in October 1966, five years after Kuwait's independence from British Colonization. KU started with only two faculties, namely the Faculty of Science, Arts and Education; and a Women's College. The university had 418 students enrolled and 31 faculty members. By ,...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
(1988–1989) and a visiting Professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia
International Islamic University Malaysia
The International Islamic University Malaysia , also known as IIUM or UIAM, is a public publicly-funded university in Malaysia. Its main campus is located in Gombak, Selangor with its situated in Petaling Jaya / Nilai and its medical-centric branch in Kuantan, Pahang. The university is sponsored...
. He is considered as one of Egypt's most famous thinkers and very well known among Arab scholars.
Elmessiri's major areas of research included: Jews, Judaism and Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
; secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
and prejudice; Western culture and contemporaneity; modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
; literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
and comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
. Over the course of his life his outlook moved from western secularism to a modern islamic vision. Elmessiri wrote several articles about his ideas, including "Chosen Community, an Exceptional Burden", "A People Like Any other". He has also written for children.
His eight-volume Encyclopaedia of "Jews, Judaism and Zionism" (" موسوعة اليهود واليهودية والصهيونية: نموذج تفسيري جديد"), written in Arabic with an analytical/methodological form rather than an encyclopedic collection of information, is intended to provide analysis of the middle east crisis, the history of Jews and the history of Zionism, as well as an in-depth analysis of Zionism, its Ideology and beliefs, and ultimately the goals of such movement.
On July 2, 2008 he died after a very long battle against cancer at the Palestine Hospital, Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
Statements by Abdel Wahab Elmessiri
- "The functional nature of israel means that it was created by the colonialism for a specific purpose. It is thus a colonial project that has nothing to do with judaism".
- According to MEMRI, in 2004, Al-Massiri said in an interview on privately owned Egyptian Dream2 TV that the USA and IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
are hedonistic societies, devoid of values, and are less willing to fight and suffer casualties in order to defend their homeland or their honor.
English language publications
- "Israel, Base of Western Imperialism" (Committee of Supporting Middle East Liberation, New York, 1969)
- A Lover from Palestine and Other Poems (Palestine Information Office, Washington D.C., 1972)
- Israel and South Africa: The Progression of a Relationship (North American, New Brunswick, N.J., 1976; second edition 1977; third edition, 1980; Arabic translation, 1980)
- The Land of Promise: A Critique of Political Zionism (North American, New Brunswick, N.J., 1977)
- Three Studies in English Literature (North American, New Brunswick, N.J., 1979)
- The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Resistance Poetry [editor] (Three Continents Press, Washington D.C., 1983)
- A Land of Stone and Thyme: Palestinian Short Stories [co-editor] (Quartet, London, 1996). Translated by Anthony CalderbankAnthony CalderbankAnthony Calderbank is an English translator of contemporary Arabic literature. He was educated at Manchester University where he studied Arabic and Persian. He lived in Egypt for several years in the mid-1980s, making his home in the Cairo neighbourhood of Shubra...
- "Epistemological Bias in the Social and Physical Sciences" (International Institute of Islamic Thought, London - Washington, 2006)
External links
Official homepage including an online version of the Jews, judaism and Zionism encyclopedia.- "A people like any other" Al-Ahram Weekly
- Abdelwahab M. Elmessiri 1938-2008 in TheFreeLibrary.com.
- Dr. Abdul-Wahab El-Messiri: leading intellectual light of Islam and politics in Egypt Obituary in the Yemen TimesYemen TimesThe Yemen Times is unified Yemen's first and most widely-read independent English-language newspaper. The paper is published twice-weekly and has its own printing press, advertising associates and news service....
, 15 July 2008 - "On life, literature and Palestine, a tribute to Abdelwahab Elmessiri" Obituary on The Electronic Intifada, 4 August 2008
- Abdel-Wahab M. El-Messiri: A global specialist in the Zionist movement’s history