Hichem Djait

Hichem Djait (Arabic: هشام جعيط; December 6, 1935 – June 1, 2021), also known as Hichem Jaiet, was a prominent historian and scholar of Islam.[1][2][3]

Hichem Djait
Born(1935-12-06)December 6, 1935
Tunis, Tunisia
DiedJune 1, 2021(2021-06-01) (aged 85)
Academic work
Era20th-century philosophy
Main interestsIslamic studies
Notable works
  • The Great Fitna (1989)
  • The Life of Muhammad (2001–2012)

Biography

Djait was born in 1935 in Tunis, Tunisia to a conservative upper-middle-class family. His father and some of his uncles and relatives were Islamic sages (or sheikhs), which made the name of the Djait family become traditionally associated with the Zeytouna Mosque as well as with Islamic Fiqh and Iftah (or jurisprudence). He completed his secondary education at Sadiki College, where he studied French, world literature, Western philosophy, Arabic, and Islamic Studies. This training made him discover Enlightenment thinkers and the ideals of the Renaissance and the Reformation, which were different from the teachings of his family's conservative milieu.[4] Djait later travelled to France, where he received the "Aggregation" diploma in History in 1962. His completed his doctoral defense in Arts and Humanities in Paris in 1981.

He became an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tunis. He was also a visiting professor at the McGill University and the University of California at Berkeley.[5] In addition to the numerous honorary titles and awards he received,[6] Djait was member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and was appointed president of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts on February 17, 2012.[7]

He was a specialist in Medieval Islamic history and member of the International Scientific Institute for the General History of Africa edited by the UNESCO.[8] In the many books he published in Tunisia and France, he mainly deals with subjects related to Arab-Islamic culture, history, and philosophy, as well as to the relationship between Islam and modernity and the place of Islam in the contemporary world.[3] He believed that national identity and religious culture may be related but are not mutually constitutive and supported the political principle of laicite (secularism) "which will not be hostile to Islam, and does not draw its motivation from anti-Islamic feeling."[9][3] His 1989 publication The Great Fitna (or The Great Discord) came to be known as a seminal study and revolutionary reading of Islamic history following the death of Prophet Muhammad.The Great Fitna is often described by scholars and critics as the most influential reference on the subject. Other works include Europe and Islam (1978), The Revelation, the Quran and the Prophecy (1986), The Crisis of Islamic Culture (2004) and a ground-breaking study entitled The Life of Muhammad, first published in French between 2001 and 2007 and released in English in 2012. The three volumes of the latter study, which cover the itinerary of the Prophet and the concomitant evolution of Islam, are subtitled "Revelation and Prophecy," "Predication in Mecca," and "The Prophet’s Life in Medina and the Triumph of Islam."

Djait was also a chess grandmaster, and was president of the FTE, the Tunisian chess federation from 1980 to 1981.[10][11]

Awards and honours

Main publications

In English
  • Europe and Islam : Cultures and Modernity, Berkeley, ed. University of California Press, 1985
  • Islamic Culture in Crisis : A Reflection on Civilizations in History, New Jersey, ed. Transaction Publishers, 2011
  • The Life of Muhammad, 3 vols, Carthage, ed. Beït El Hikma, 2012[21]

In French
  • Histoire générale de la Tunisie. t. II : Le Moyen Âge , (with Mohamed Talbi), Tunis, ed. Société tunisienne de diffusion, 1965
  • Rêver de la Tunisie, Paris, ed. Vilo, 1971
  • La Personnalité et le devenir arabo-islamique, Paris, ed. Le Seuil, 1974
  • L'Europe et l'Islam, Paris, ed. Le Seuil, 1978
  • Al-Kūfa, naissance de la ville islamique, Paris, ed. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1986
  • La Grande Discorde : religion et politique dans l'islam des origines, Paris, ed. Gallimard, 1989
  • Connaissance de l'Islam, (with Mohamed Arkoun), Paris, ed. Syros-Alternatives, 1992
  • La Vie de Muhammad. vol. I : Révélation et prophétie, Paris, ed. Fayard, 2001
  • La Crise de la culture islamique, Paris, ed. Fayard, 2004
  • La Fondation du Maghreb islamique, Tunis, ed. Amal, 2004
  • La Vie de Muhammad. vol. II : La Prédication prophétique à La Mecque, Paris, ed. Fayard, 2008
  • La Vie de Muhammad. t. III : Le parcours du Prophète à Médine et le triomphe de l'Islam, Paris, Fayard, 2012
  • Penser l'Histoire, penser la Religion, Tunis, ed. Cérès, 2021

References
  1. "Hichem Jaiet n'est plus". African Manager. June 1, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  2. "'Hichem Djaït'". January 2023.
  3. Hourani, Albert. “A Disturbance of Spirits (since 1967).” In A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, 1991.
  4. "Hichem Djaït : Je ne m'étais jamais reconnu dans cette vision fondamentalement négative de l'orientalisme". March 2, 2018. Archived from the original on March 2, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
  5. "'Hichem Djaït, l'historien émérite'".
  6. "'Hichem Djaït est la personnalité culturelle de l'année 2016 dans le monde arabe'".
  7. "'L'historien Hichem Djaït président de l'Académie Tunisienne des des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts'".
  8. "Hisham D'jait". 2007. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
  9. Hichem Djaït, La personnalité et le devenir arabo-islamiques (Paris, 1974), p. 140.
  10. "La FTE". Fédération Tunisienne des Echecs. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  11. "H. Djait chess games - 365Chess.com". Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  12. "Hichem Djaït".
  13. "Ordre de la République" (PDF).
  14. "Winners".
  15. "'Hichem Djaït personnalité culturelle arabe de 2016". December 8, 2015.
  16. "'Prix Comar d'Or : hommage à Hichem Djaït et Ezzeddine Madani". May 2016.
  17. "Hommage au professeur Hichem Djaït" (PDF).
  18. "La Chaire de l'IMA rendra hommage à Hichem Djaït". Archived from the original on April 10, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  19. "Après une longue éclipse, la Tunisie célèbre ce jeudi la Journée nationale de la culture".
  20. "Les Prix Ibn Khaldoun 2023 remis le 26 mai à Tunis".
  21. "'The life of Muhammad par le Dr. Hichem Djaït'".
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