Kamal Suleiman Salibi (2 May 1929 – 1 September 2011) was a prominent
LebaneseThe Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
historian, professor of history at the
American University of BeirutThe American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
(AUB) and the founding Director (later Honorary President) of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in
AmmanAmman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Jordan. He was a lifetime bachelor, who devoted his life to books.
Career
Born to a Greek Orthodox family in Beirut, and later converting to
AnglicanismAnglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
, Salibi's family came from the Lebanese village of
BhamdounBhamdoun is a town in Lebanon from Beirut on the main road that leads to Damascus, lying at an altitude of above the Lamartine valley. Two separate villages compose the town, Bhamdoun-el-mhatta and Bhamdoun-el-day'aa...
in
French Mandatory LebanonOfficially the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire...
. After studying at French missionary schools in Bhamdoun and Broummana, he completed his secondary education at the Prep School in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
(now
International CollegeInternational College, Beirut, Lebanon, is a private co-educational preparatory school to the American University of Beirut mainly, as well as American Ivy League universities. Its students come from all over Lebanon, as well as the Middle-East and around the world.The U.S...
), and his BA in History and Political Science from
AUBThe American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
, before moving to the
School of Oriental and African StudiesThe School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
, SOAS (
University of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
) where he earned his PhD in history in 1953 under the supervision of historian
Bernard LewisBernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
. His dissertation was subsequently published under the title Maronite Historians of Mediaeval Lebanon.
After his graduation from SOAS, Salibi joined AUB as bibliographer of the Arab Studies Program. He then became professor in the Department of History and Archaeology where he joined other prominent and already established historians such as Nicholas Ziadeh and Zein Zein. In 1965, he published The Modern History of Lebanon, which was subsequently translated into Arabic, Russian, and French. Salibi eventually became one of the pillars of the history department, mentoring, training and supervising many students who later became authorities in their own right.
In 1982 Salibi finalised his book, The Bible Came from Arabia, during the
IsraeliThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
invasion of Lebanon. It was translated into German at the same time as the original English version was being published in London. Salibi wrote subsequent works on biblical issues using the same etymological and geographic methodology. Some of his books are today considered classics, notably A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered (1988) and The Modern History of Jordan (1993). In 1994, Salibi helped found the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in
AmmanAmman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Jordan, and became its director from 1997 until 2004, following his retirement from AUB. He was associated as a consultant with the Druze Heritage Foundation. He retired from the Department of History and Archeology at the American University of Beirut in 1998, and became professor emeritus. He moved to Amman in the early 1990s and became director of the Institute for Interfaith Studies there from 1994 to 2003. He believed Lebanon's Christian community had an important role to play in building a Lebanon distinct from its Islamic ambiance, but was free of the fanatical Christianity characteristic of many of his Maronite colleagues. He dismantled the foundational myths which many of Lebanon's communities were attached to, and replaced them with a complex portrait of the nation as an intricate mosaic of disparate but interconnected communities, over which no one group exerted dominance. He was strongly opposed to sectarian politics, believing that it had been the ruin of his country, and was one of the first Lebanese to remove his sect (madhdhab) identification from the Lebanese census records. He pinned a copy of his new ID, which has 'I' for his madhdhab outside his apartment in
Ras BeirutRas Beirut is a luxurious residential neighborhood of Beirut. It is the most cosmopolitan and open-minded area of Beirut, where sizable populations of Christians, Muslims, and Druze coexist peacefully. It is known as the cultural and intellectual center of Beirut...
.
Arabian Judah theory
Kamal Salibi wrote three books advocating the controversial "Israel in Arabia" theory. In this view, the place names of the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
actually allude to places in southwest Arabia; many of them were later reinterpreted to refer to places in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, when the Arabian Hebrews migrated to what is now called Eretz Israel, and where they established the
HasmoneanThe Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
kingdom under
Simon MaccabaeusSimon Thassi was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family. The name "Thassi" has an uncertain meaning...
in the second century B.C. In this new Israel, they switched from Hebrew to Aramaic. It was this switch in language that created the confusions which lead to the distortion of the immigrants' stories. He also argued that 'Lebanon' itself in high antiquity was a place in the Southern Arabian peninsula-
The (literally) central identification of the theory is that the geographical feature referred to as הירדן, the “Jordan”, which is usually taken to refer to the
Jordan River, although never actually described as a “river” in the Hebrew text, actually means the great West Arabian Escarpment, known as the
Sarawat MountainsThe Sarawat Mountains or the Sarat is a mountain range running parallel to the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is among the Peninsula's most prominent geographical features. The Sarawat start from the border of Jordan in the north to the Gulf of Aden in the south, running through Saudi...
. The area of ancient Israel is then identified with the land on either side of the southern section of the
escarpmentAn escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
that is, the southern
Hejazal-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
and
'Asir, from
Ta’ifTa’if is a city in the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia at an elevation of on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains . It has a population of 521,273 . Each summer the Saudi Government moves from the heat of Riyadh to Ta'if...
down to the border with
YemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
.
The theory has not been widely accepted anywhere, and embarrassed many of his colleagues. and several academic reviewers criticised
CapeJonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
for having accepted “The Bible Came from Arabia” for publication. Salibi argued that early epigraphic evidence used to vindicate the Biblical stories has been misread.
MeshaKing Mesha of Moab was a king of Moabites around the 9th century BC, known most famous for writing the Mesha stela.The books of Samuel record that Moab was conquered by David and retained in the territories of his son Solomon . Later, King Omri of Israel reconquered Moab after Moab was lost...
, the
MoabiteMoabite may refer to:*a person from Moab, the former country of the Moabite people, currently located in the area of Jordan east of the Dead Sea*the Moabite language, an extinct Canaanite dialect once spoken in Moab...
ruler who celebrated a victory over the kingdom of Israel in a stone inscription, the
Mesha steleThe Mesha Stele is a black basalt stone bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC ruler Mesha of Moab in Jordan....
found in 1868, was, according to Salibi, an Arabian, and Moab was a village 'south (yemen) of Rabin' near Mecca. The words translated 'many days' actually meant 'south of Rabin'.
He shared the view of such scholars as
Thomas L. ThompsonThomas L. Thompson is a biblical theologian associated with the movement known as the Copenhagen School. He was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1993–2009, lives in Denmark and is now a Danish citizen.-Background:Thompson obtained a B.A...
that there is a severe mismatch between the Biblical narrative and the archaeological findings in Palestine. Thompson's explanation was to discount the Bible as literal history but Salibi's was to locate the centre of Jewish culture further south.
His theory has been both attacked and supported for its supposed implications for modern political affairs, although Salibi himself has made no such connection.
Tudor ParfittTudor Parfitt is a Welsh Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies , where he was the founding director of the Centre for Jewish Studies, historian, writer, traveller, broadcaster and adventurer...
wrote “It is dangerous because Salibi's ideas have all sorts of implications, not least in terms of the legitimacy of the State of Israel”. Since the theory casts no doubt on the existence, location or legitimacy of the
HasmoneanThe Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
kingdom, nor rewrites in any way the history of Palestine in the last 2200 years or more, it can only have that implication for those who take literally the divine award of the
Promised LandThe Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
to Abraham and his successors.
The location of the
Promised LandThe Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
is discussed in chapter 15 of “The Bible Came from Arabia”. Salibi argues that the description in the Bible is of an extensive tract of land, substantially larger than Palestine which includes a very varied landscape, ranging from well-watered mountain-tops via fertile valleys and foothills to lowland deserts. In the southern part of Arabia there are
recently-active volcanoes, near to which are, presumably, the buried remains of
Sodom and GomorrahSodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....
.
Works
- Maronite Historians of Mediaeval Lebanon, Beirut, AUB Oriental Series 34, 1959
- The Modern History of Lebanon, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965
- Crossroads to Civil War, Lebanon 1958-1976, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1976
- Syria under Islam: Empire on Trial 634-1097, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1977
- A History of Arabia, Beirut, Caravan Books, 1980
- The Bible Came from Arabia, London, Jonathan Cape, 1985
- Secrets of the Bible People, London, Saqi Books
Saqi Books is an independent UK publisher co-founded in 1984 by author and feminist Mai Ghoussoub to "print quality academic and general interest books on the Middle East". It now claims to be "the UK's largest publisher of Middle Eastern and Arabic titles"...
, 1988
- Who Was Jesus?: Conspiracy in Jerusalem, London, I.B. Tauris
I. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, 1988
- A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered, London, I.B. Tauris
I. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, 1988
- The Historicity of Biblical Israel, London, NABU Publications, 1998
- The Historicity of Biblical Israel (second edition), Beirut, Dar Nelson, 2009
- The Modern History of Jordan, London, I.B. Tauris
I. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, 1993
- A Bird on an Oak Tree" (Arabic طائر على سنديانة), Amman, Ashshoroq Publishers, 2002
External links
- http://www.cwo.com/~thowoods/salibi.htm more information and pictures of Asir.
- Phillip C. Hammond's 1990 Review of The Bible Came from Arabia, in The International Journal of Middle East Studies (August, 1990)
- http://baheyeldin.com/science/kamal-salibi-and-the-israel-from-yemen-theory.html gives lots of links.
- Kamal Salibi's personal blog http://kamal-salibi.blogspot.com/.
Other references
- Biella, Joan (2004) Dictionary of Old South Arabian – Sabaean Dialect Eisenbrauns, Winola Lake, Indiana, USA
- Hubbard, David (1956) The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast Ph.D. dissertation.,St.Andrews University, Scotland
- Leslau, Wolf
Wolf Leslau ]] November 18, 2006) was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia.-Youth and Education:Leslau was born in Krzepice, a small town near Częstochowa, Poland...
(1991) Comparative Dictionary of Ge’ez Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany
- Rabin, Chaim
Chaim Menachem Rabin was an Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages.Chaim Rabin was born in Giessen, Germany, 22 November 1915, the son of Israel and Martel Rabin. He studied first at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1933-1934. He then studied in England, at the School of Oriental...
(1951) Ancient West Arabian London: Taylor’s Foreign Press
- Savoie, Denis (2009), Sundials: Design, Construction, and Use Springer Praxis, ISBN 978-0-387-09801-2 (see pp. 163-164)
- Schneider, Roger (1973) Deux inscriptions subarabiques du Tigre. Leiden, Netherlands: Bibliotheca Orientalis, 30, 1973, 385-387
- Ullendorff, Edward
Edward Ullendorff FBA was a British scholar and historian, especially in Semitic languages and Ethiopia.-Biography:...
(1956) Hebraic Jewish Elements in Abyssinian (Monophysite) Christianity in Journal of Semitic Studies, 1, no.3, 216-256
- Ullendorff, Edward (1960) The Ethiopians London: Oxford University Press
- Ullendorff, Edward (1968) Ethiopia and the Bible London: Oxford University Press