Claude Cahen (1909 – 1991) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
orientalistOriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the term Asian studies has mostly replaced the older term. European study of the region had primarily religious origins,...
and
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, Muslim sources about the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, and
social historySocial history is an area of historical study, considered by some to be a social science, that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends...
of the medieval Islamic society (works on Futuwa orders).
Claude Cahen was born to a French Jewish family. After studying at the
École Normale SupérieureThe École Normale Supérieure is a French grande école...
on the rue d'Ulm, he attended the
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientalesThe Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 after the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands établissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations...
, receiving a doctorate in 1940. He was a professor at the
University of StrasbourgThe University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
from 1945 to 1959 and then at the
SorbonneThe name Sorbonne is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions , but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries...
; in 1967 he was invited to teach at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
, and in 1973, he was elected to the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-LettresThe Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:The Académie originated as a small council of humanists,...
.
Cahen was married and had six children, including the historian Michel Cahen, who wrote a biography of his father.
Claude Cahen (1909 – 1991) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
orientalistOriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the term Asian studies has mostly replaced the older term. European study of the region had primarily religious origins,...
and
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, Muslim sources about the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, and
social historySocial history is an area of historical study, considered by some to be a social science, that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends...
of the medieval Islamic society (works on Futuwa orders).
Claude Cahen was born to a French Jewish family. After studying at the
École Normale SupérieureThe École Normale Supérieure is a French grande école...
on the rue d'Ulm, he attended the
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientalesThe Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 after the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands établissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations...
, receiving a doctorate in 1940. He was a professor at the
University of StrasbourgThe University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
from 1945 to 1959 and then at the
SorbonneThe name Sorbonne is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions , but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries...
; in 1967 he was invited to teach at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
, and in 1973, he was elected to the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-LettresThe Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:The Académie originated as a small council of humanists,...
.
Cahen was married and had six children, including the historian Michel Cahen, who wrote a biography of his father. Cahen was a member of the
French Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, it is the forth french party and remains the largest party in France advocating communist views, and retains a large membership The...
from the 1930s until 1960, and remained an active
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
afterwards. Despite his origins, he neither self-identified as Jewish nor supported the State of Israel.
In 1954 he published "An Introduction to the First Crusade" in the
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
journal__FORCETOC__A journal has several related meanings:* a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary....
Past and PresentPast & Present is a British historical Academic journal, which was a leading force in the development of social history. It was founded in 1952 by a combination of Marxist and non-Marxist historians. The Marxist historians included members of the Communist Party Historians Group, including E. P....
. Cahen has been called "the
doyen of Islamic social history and one of the most influential Islamic historians of [his] century," and "the best historian of the Middle East in the twentieth century."
Mark CohenMark R. Cohen is a Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His research specialty is Jews in the Muslim world. He is considered to be one of the leading scholars of the history of Jews in the Middle Ages under Islam. His research relies greatly on documents from the Cairo Geniza...
describes him as a distinguished Islamic historian. He was a prisoner of war in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The Festschrift
Itineraires d'Orient: Hommages a Claude Cahen, edited by Raoul Curiel and Rika Gyselen, appeared in 1995 as an honor to his "distinguished career." and an issue of the journal
Arabica (43/1 (1996)) was dedicated to him. That journal also includes a nearly complete bibliography of his works.