Personal Info
- Country of residence: Lebanon
Information
Nicholas Ziadeh (December 2, 1907 -
July 27, 2006), Palestinian historian and author of Lebanese origin, born in
Syria.
his upbringing
Nicholas Ziadeh was born in Bab
Musalla neighborhood, one of the neighborhoods of Al-Midan district in
Damascus, to Palestinian parents from Nazareth, and his father was an employee
in the engineering department of the General Administration of the Hijaz Railway,
which was centered in Damascus. At the beginning of the First World War, when
he was 8 years old, his father was recruited to fight with the Ottoman army,
and while his father was staying in a gathering center for soldiers waiting to
be sent to the battle fronts, his father fell ill and died before he went to
the battle front.
After the death of his father, his
family returned to Nazareth in 1917, where his uncle lived, who took care of
them. And soon his uncle was killed in a bomb explosion dropped by a British
plane, so his mother was forced to look for work to support the family, and she
found work in Jenin, so the family moved to live there. Nicola did not attend
any school in Jenin for two years because there was no school there, as the
German army seized the only school in the town, but he compensated for that by
reading and self-education, so he read many books that he borrowed from his
neighbor, such as The Westernization of Bani Hilal, the biography of Saif bin
Dhi Yazan, and One Thousand and One Nights. In 1919, a public school was
opened, so Nicola enrolled in it, and in 1921 he was accepted to learn at the
Elementary Teachers' House in Jerusalem.
Nicola graduated from the Teachers’House after three years, so he worked for several weeks at the Nazareth School
(and he was then 16 years old). He taught history and geography, and that
decision had an impact on his life, as he liked the subject of history, so he
read books on history. He also became acquainted with some excavation missions for
foreign antiquities in Palestine, which were excavating in Acre and Bisan; He
was keen to visit many archaeological sites in Palestine, and at the beginning
of his life he considered himself a "historian under training", and
in 1930 he published an article in Al-Muqtataf magazine on the Battle of
Megiddo.
Nicholas Ziadeh Professor
In 1935 he was chosen for a mission
to study ancient history at the University of London, and this was the
fulfillment of his hopes. He spent nearly 4 years in Europe, including about 6
months at the University of Munich, Germany, whose system required the student
to learn two European languages other than English, so he chose to learn German
and old French, and was able to obtain a bachelor's degree in 1939.
Nicolas returned to Palestine in
the summer of 1939, weeks before the outbreak of World War II. During the eight
years following his return, he taught ancient history and the history of the
Arabs at the Arab College (Jerusalem). His first book was published in 1943 AD,
entitled “Pioneers of the Arab East in the Middle Ages.” During those years, he
wanted to transfer some of what he learned in the West to his students through
his lectures and books.
In 1947 he traveled to the
University of London again to prepare for a doctorate, and his interest had
shifted from classical history to Islamic history, and during this period he
wrote a number of articles on extracts, culture, and others, dealing with
multiple aspects of Arab history. Nicola spent two years in London, during
which he prepared his doctoral dissertation on “Syria in the First Mamluk Era.”In 1950, he submitted the thesis and obtained his doctorate.
After the occupation of Palestine,
Nicola immigrated to Lebanon, where he joined the American University in
Beirut, where he was initially appointed as an assistant professor, then
appointed a professor in 1958, and he continued to study there until 1973.
After reaching the age of fifty-five, he retired from the American University,
and supervised at Saint Joseph University - Beirut, his doctoral dissertations
in Arab history, until 1992. He also taught at the University of Jordan for two
years (1976-1978), after which he returned to Beirut, working at the Lebanese
University as a lecturer and supervisor.
His writings
Nicholas Ziadeh wrote more than 40
books on Arab and Islamic history and translated many history books from
English into Arabic, including books by Arnold Toynbee. He has published nearly
150 articles and lectures in Arab and international conferences. His complete
works were collected and issued in 23 volumes. from his books:
Pioneers of the Arab East in Ages -
Cairo - 1943.
Arab leap - Jerusalem 1945.
The Old World (two parts) - Jaffa
1942.
Pictures from Arab history - Cairo
1946.
Historical Arab Figures - Jaffa
1946.
European Pictures - Jerusalem 1947.
The World of the Middle Ages in Europe
- Jerusalem 1947.
Cyrenaica, the eighth Arab state -
Beirut 1950.
Arabism in the balance of
nationalism - Beirut 1950.
Peaks of Arab Islamic Thought -
Beirut 1987.
Geography and travels among the
Arabs - Beirut 1987.
Shamiat Studies in Civilization and
History - Beirut 1989.
African Studies in the Maghreb and
Western Sudan - Beirut 1991.
Lebanese women history and photos -
Beirut 1992.
My Days (Autobiography) - Beirut
1992.
Orientals in the links of trade and
thought - Beirut 1998.
In Search of God - Beirut 2000.
Christianity and the Arabs - Beirut
2001.
Byzantium and the Early Islamic
Conquests, published by Dar Qadmas in Damascus, 2022.
Greek Thought and Arab Culture: The
Greco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society, by
Dimitri Gutas; Translated by: Nicolas Ziada - 2003.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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