Hichem Djait

Hichem Djait (Arabic: هشام جعيط‎), (born December 6, 1935) is a prominent historian and scholar of Islam.[1]

Hichem Djait
Born	(1935-12-06) December 6, 1935 Tunis, Tunisia
Academic work
Era	20th-century philosophy
Main interests	Islamic studies
Notable works	The Great Fitna (1989) The Life of Muhammad (2001–2012)

Biography

Djait was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a conservative upper-middle-class family. His erudite 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 had his secondary education at Sadiki College, where he studied French, world literature, Western philosophy, Arabic, and Islamic Studies. His training at Sadiki College made him discover Enlightenment thinkers and the ideals of the Renaissance and the Reformation which were rather different from the teachings of his family's conservative milieu.[2]

Djait later travelled to France where he received the "Aggregation" diploma in History in 1962. His PhD in Arts and Humanities was defended in Paris in 1981. Today, Djait is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tunis. He is also a visiting professor at the McGill University and the University of California at Berkeley.[3] In addition to the numerous honorary titles and awards he received,[4] Djait is 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.[5]

Professor Djait is a specialist in Medieval Islamic history, he was member of the International Scientific Institute for the General History of Africa edited by the UNESCO.[6] In the many books he published in Tunisia and France, he mainly deals with various 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. Among such publications, one may mention The Great Fitna (or The Great Discord) first published in 1989 and which represents a seminal study and a 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."

Awards and Honours

• 1989 : Tunisian National Humanities Award (Tunis)[7]
• 1996 : Commander of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia[8]
• 2006 : Prize Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais (Dubai)[9]
• 2016 : Arab Book Award (Beirut)[10]
• 2017 : Tunisia's Golden Comar Prize (Tunis)[11]
• 2018 : Tunisian University Medal (Tunis)[12]
• 2018 : Medal of the Arab World Institute (Paris)[13]
• 2019 : Grand Officier of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia[14]

Works

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[15]

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

References

1. "'Hichem Djaït'".
2. "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.
3. "'Hichem Djaït, l'historien émérite'".
4. "'Hichem Djaït est la personnalité culturelle de l'année 2016 dans le monde arabe'".
5. "'L'historien Hichem Djaït président de l'Académie Tunisienne des des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts'".
6. "Hisham D'jait". 2007. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
7. "Hichem Djaït".
8. "Ordre de la République" (PDF).
9. "Winners".
10. "'Hichem Djaït personnalité culturelle arabe de 2016".
11. "'Prix Comar d'Or : hommage à Hichem Djaït et Ezzeddine Madani".
12. "Hommage au professeur Hichem Djaït" (PDF).
13. "La Chaire de l'IMA rendra hommage à Hichem Djaït". Archived from the original on April 10, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
14. "Après une longue éclipse, la Tunisie célèbre ce jeudi la Journée nationale de la culture".
15. "'The life of Muhammad par le Dr. Hichem Djaït'".