Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), also commonly referred to as "H. A. R. Gibb", was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
OrientalistOrientalist may refer to*A scholar of oriental studies*Relating to the Western intellectual or artistic paradigm known as Orientalism...
.
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Gibb went to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(the home of his ancestors) for education at the age of five after the death of his father. He attended the
Royal High SchoolThe Royal High School of Edinburgh can trace its roots back to 1128, and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It is a co-educational state comprehensive school, administered by the City of Edinburgh Council...
,
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
. Studies at the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
were interrupted by
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, during which he served in
FranceFrance , 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...
and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in the
Royal Field ArtilleryThe Royal Regiment of Artillery is generally known as the Royal Artillery and is nicknamed the Gunners. The regiment is an arm of the British Army...
.
Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), also commonly referred to as "H. A. R. Gibb", was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
OrientalistOrientalist may refer to*A scholar of oriental studies*Relating to the Western intellectual or artistic paradigm known as Orientalism...
.
Life
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Gibb went to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(the home of his ancestors) for education at the age of five after the death of his father. He attended the
Royal High SchoolThe Royal High School of Edinburgh can trace its roots back to 1128, and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It is a co-educational state comprehensive school, administered by the City of Edinburgh Council...
,
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
. Studies at the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
were interrupted by
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, during which he served in
FranceFrance , 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...
and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in the
Royal Field ArtilleryThe Royal Regiment of Artillery is generally known as the Royal Artillery and is nicknamed the Gunners. The regiment is an arm of the British Army...
. For his service, he was awarded a 'war privilege' MA. After the war he studied Arabic at the
School of Oriental Studies of London UniversityThe School of Oriental and African Studies is a constituent college of the University of London, specialising in languages, humanities, economics, law and politics concerning Asia, Africa and the Middle East...
and obtained an MA in 1922. His thesis, later published by the
Royal Asiatic SocietyThe Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, established to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...
as a monograph, was written on the Arab conquests of
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. He married Helen Jessie Stark (Ella) the same year, and together they had one son and one daughter.
From 1921 to 1937 Gibb taught Arabic at the then School of Oriental Studies becoming a professor there in 1930. He served as an editor of the
Encyclopaedia of IslamThe Encyclopaedia of Islam is the standard encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies. It embraces articles on distinguished Muslims of every age and land, on tribes and dynasties, on the crafts and sciences, on political and religious institutions, on the geography, ethnography,...
in this period. In 1937 Gibb succeeded D. S. Margoliouth as
Laudian Professor of ArabicThe Laudian Professorship of Arabic was established by Archbishop Laud of Canterbury in favour of Oxford University. Its first holder was the noted orientalist Edward Pococke who entered the post in 1636.Subsequent holders have included:...
with a fellowship at
St. John's College__FORCETOC__St John's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel...
at
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...
, and remained there for 18 years. Gibb's
Mohammedanism, published in 1949, became the basic text used by Western students of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
for a generation.
In 1955, Gibb became the James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and University Professor at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
. The latter, a rare title, is conferred on select scholars "working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as to cross the conventional boundaries of the specialties." Later, he became director of Harvard's Center For Middle Eastern Studies, and in this capacity he became a leader of the movement in American universities to set up centres of
regional studiesRegional science is a field of the social sciences concerned with analytical approaches to problems that are specifically urban, rural, or regional...
, bringing together teachers, researchers and students in different disciplines to study the culture and society of a region of the world. A library at Harvard, the Gibb Islamic Seminar Library, is named in his honor.
Sources
- Albert Hourani, "Gibb, Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen (1895–1971)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
Oxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
, 2004, accessed 6 Aug 2008.