Jawad Ali

Jawad Ali
Native name	جواد علي
Born	1907 Kadhimiya, Baghdad Vilayet, Ottoman Iraq
Died	1987 (aged 80) Baghdad, Iraq
Occupation	Historian, academic and writer
Language	Arabic
Alma mater	University of Hamburg
Period	20th century CE
Subject	History of Islam, History of the Arabs, Pre-Islamic Arabia
Notable works	al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam

Jawad Ali (1907–1987) was an Iraqi historian and academic who specialized in the history of both Islam and the Arabs. He is best known for his work al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam (The Abridged History of the Arabs before Islam), which is one of the most referenced works on pre-Islamic Arabia. Jawad Ali also had a doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 1939, and worked at the History department in the University of Baghdad starting from 1950.

Biography

Jawad Ali was born in a town located in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, Iraq. After completing most of his studies in his homeland, he migrated to Germany where he would receive a doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 1939.[1][2] After his return from Germany, he married an Iraqi woman and had three sons from this marriage, all of whom would become influential academics in future.[1][2] With his family, he went on travels to Massachusetts and also the United Kingdom, where he also visited the institutes in those places as a visiting professor. In 1950, he was a professor at the History department of the University of Baghdad.[2][3]

Death

In his older years, a terminal illness plagued him, and eventually he died from it at the age of 80 on the 26th of September in the year 1987.[1][2]

Works

Jawad Ali mainly specialized in Islamic history, as well as the history of the Arabs in general.[4] The al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam (The Abridged History of the Arabs before Islam) is Jawad Ali's best known work regarding pre-Islamic history, and has been one of the most referenced works on the subject.[5] In his later years, he also wrote a Seerah (prophetic biography) known as Tarikh al-Arab fi al-Islam, which, unlike his previous work on pre-Islamic Arabia, concerned the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Arabs after the rise of Islam, as well as being written in only one volume.[6]

References

1. "File on Jawad Ali". Iraqi Academy of Sciences (2669). 22 October 1947 – via Ministry of Education.
2. "Dr. Jawad Ali". Baghdad University Museum. 2019.
3. Al Mutabbai, Hamid (1985). "The Scholar and Historian, Jawad Ali". Bayn Al Nahrain Magazine (59–60): 93.
4. Corm, Georges (2020). Arab Political Thought: Past and Present. C. Hurst & Co. p. 276. ISBN 9781787383678.
5. Jamme, Albert (1954). "Ta'rikh al 'arabi qabl al-islam [History of the Arabs before Islam], by Jawad 'Ali, Vol. 3: The political section". Middle East Journal. 8: 213 ff. ProQuest 1290740285.
6. Ali, Jawad (1961). Tarikh al-Arab fi al-Islam: As-Seerah an-Nabawiyyah (Revised ed.). Manshurat Al Jamal (published 2014). ISBN 978-9922630397.