Hanna Batatu ( ar, حنّا بطاطو, ) (1926 in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
– 24 June 2000 in
Winsted, Connecticut, U.S.) was a
Palestinian Marxist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
historian specialising in the history of
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and the modern
Arab east. His work on Iraq is widely considered the preeminent study of modern Iraqi history.
[Barnes, Bart. "Scholar Hanna Batatu, 74, Dies; Authority on Modern Iraq, Syria". ]The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
. 28 June 2000.
Born in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in 1926 to an
Arab Christian
Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who l ...
family, Hanna Batatu emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
in 1948, the year of the Nakba -
a series of events surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel in most of (what had previously been)
British Mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
, as well as the
creation of a large Palestinian refugee population barred by the new state from returning to their homes. From 1951 to 1953, he studied at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...
's
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He gained his doctorate at political science in
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1960, with a dissertation entitled '' The Shaykh and the Peasant in Iraq, 1917-1958''. From 1962 to 1982 he taught at the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...
, then from 1982 until his retirement in 1994 at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...
in the United States.
Batatu started studying Iraqi history in the 1950s, taking a particular interest in the revolutionary movements which were then prominent in that country and especially in the
Iraqi Communist Party
The Iraqi Communist Party ( ar, الحزب الشيوعي العراقي '; ku, Partiya Komunista Iraqê حزبی شیوعی عێراق) is a communist party and the oldest active party in Iraq. Since its foundation in 1934, it has dominated the ...
. From the late 1950s on he travelled to Iraq several times, and succeeded in having access to communist political prisoners and secret police files before the revolution of 1958. He was allowed access to security service archives from various periods of Iraqi history, up until the 1970s, and used this and his considerable range of personal contacts with figures from different political movements to compose his study of political change in Iraq, ''The Old Social Classes and New Revolutionary Movements of Iraq'' (published in 1978). This work, although largely focusing on the Iraqi Communist Party, also provides a wealth of information about the other revolutionary movements in the country as well as the ruling classes prior to 1958, and is considered one of the fundamental works on modern Iraqi history. Batatu's
methodology
In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for br ...
is grounded in
political sociology
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
and considers in detail the social factors for the developments he covers, and even more so the social composition of the movements in question.
Batatu also undertook a similar study of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, ''Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics'' (published in 1999).
References
Further reading
*
The Egyptian, Syrian, And Iraqi Revolutions Some Observations On Their Underlying Causes And Social Character', Hanna Batatu, 1983
*
The old social classes and the revolutionary movements of Iraq: A study of Iraq's old landed and commercial classes and of its communists, Ba'thists, and free officers', Hanna Batatu, London, al-Saqi Books, 2012. (first edition 1978)
*
Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics', Hanna Batatu,
2012.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batatu, Hanna
1926 births
2000 deaths
People from Jerusalem
American University of Beirut faculty
American writers of Palestinian descent
Palestinian socialists
Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
Georgetown University faculty
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Historians of the Middle East
Historians of Iraq
Historians of Syria
Palestinian Marxist historians
20th-century Palestinian historians
Palestinian Marxists
Mandatory Palestine emigrants to the United States
American Marxist historians
20th-century American historians