Bassam Frangieh
Encyclopedia
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
and culture. He is best known for his pedagogical innovations in the study of the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, as well as his translations of modern Arabic poets and novelists. Frangieh also lectures on the society and culture of the Arab world. A language professor as well as a scholar and writer, Frangieh has achieved moderate fame in the American academic world of Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations extending from North Africa in the west to the Chinese...
for his engaging educational methods. He is married to former State Department employee Aleta Wenger, who also currently works at Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
.
Education and career
Frangieh was born in a refugee camp in LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in 1949. His family, Palestinians who had owned an orange grove in Yaffa, had been relocated there due to the conflicts associated with the creation of the state of Israel. His family is distantly related to the famous Frangieh family of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, including former Lebanese president Suleiman Frangieh
Suleiman Frangieh
Suleiman Kabalan Frangieh, last name also spelled Frangié, Franjieh, or Franjiyeh , was President of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976...
, but the Palestinian Frangieh family tree
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
diverged from the Lebanese family tree several generations ago. Frangieh eventually moved to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
to attend university, earning a B.A. from Damascus University in 1976. While in Syria, he earned fame as a boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
champion and professional soccer player. Frangieh attended graduate school in the United States, and received a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in 1987. After receiving his doctorate, Frangieh taught Arabic at Georgetown for several years before accepting a position at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. After his resignation from Yale in 2007, Frangieh joined Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
as a full-time Arabic professor and the head of the Arabic Department for the five Claremont Colleges
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges are a prestigious American consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
while writing and researching new Arabic books. He is the head of the Middle East studies department.
Controversies
In April 2010, The Claremont Independent, the right-leaning campus news magazine, wrote an article critical of Frangieh's signature on a petition by Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon. The petition described Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon as part of a "Zionist killing machine", called for a boycott of Israel and Israeli academics, and called Hezbollah, a terrorist organization according to the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, among other countries, the "legitimate" "national resistance" of Lebanon. The petition said that signatories agree with the following statement from a flier promoting the petition: "We are all Hizbullah... Boycott Israel." For these reasons, Noah PollakNoah Pollak
Noah Pollak is an American political writer specializing in issues concerning foreign policy, Israel, and the Jewish people.Currently, Pollak is a regular contributor to the American publication Commentary Magazine. He also serves as the executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel's...
of the pro-Israel Commentary Magazine described the petition as "anti-Israel, pro-Hezbollah."
The petition included some "well known names" in the preface, Norman G. Finkelstein whom the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
accused of Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
., and Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
, who has argued that suicide bombings attacks in Britain were instigated by Britain's support of the Iraq war.
The petition that Professor Frangieh signed was also signed by 455 other intellectuals, including professors at Oxford University, UCLA, Boston University, MIT, Yale, and Princeton, many of whom are critical of Israel and some of whom are anti-Israel.
In December 2010, The Claremont Independent published a subsequent story that detailed Frangieh's support for Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, which he views with "great enthusiasm" as well as his view that a planned partition of Iraq into three autonomous regions was part of a "Zionist plot" to undermine Iraq.
Translations
- The Crane (forthcoming), from Ṭā'ir al-Ḥawm by Ḥalīm Barakāt
- Sun On A Cloudy Day (1997), from al-Shams fī Yawm Ghā'im by Ḥanna Mīna
- Arabian Love Poems (1993), selected poems by Nizār QabbānīNizar QabbaniNizar Tawfiq Qabbani was a Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, and Arab nationalism...
Scholarly works
- al-Ightirāb fī al-Riwāyah al-Filisṭīnīyah (forthcoming)
- Bahjat al-Iktishāf (2003)
- Anthology of Arabic Literature, Culture and Thought (2004)
Articles
- Qassim Haddad: Irregular Rhythms of Life in Kalimat
- Modern Arabic Poetry: Vision and Reality in Traditions, Modernity and Postmodernity in Arabic Literature
- The Concept of Return in Issa Boullat's novel: Returning to Jerusalem in Dirāsāt `Arabīyah
- Mahmoud Belaid: Ru'yah Tastashref Al Mustaqbal in Journal of the Arab Tunisian Union Writers