Évariste Lévi-Provençal (4 January 1894 – 27 March 1956) was a French medievalist, orientalist, Arabist, and historian of Islam. The scholar who would take the name Lévi-Provençal was born 4 January 1894 in Constantine,

French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...

, as Makhlóuf Evariste Levi ( ar, مخلوف إفاريست ليفي),ParkWasserstein his second name revealing that his North-African

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family was already somewhat Gallicized. By the age of nineteen when he published his first paper he had rechristened himself Évariste Lévi-Provençal. He studied at the Lycée in Constantine, and served in the French army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, being wounded in the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

in 1917. He then joined the Institut des Hautes Etudes Marocaines. He held positions at the

University of Algiers The University of Algiers (Arabic:جامعة الجزائر – بن يوسف بن خـدة ), commonly called the Algiers 1 University, is a public research university located in Algiers, Algeria. It is the oldest and most prestigious universi ...

(1926) and later the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

(1945). Lévi-Provençal was the founder of the French study of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

and the first director of the Institute of Islamic Studies (''Institut d'études islamiques'') in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

. He specialized in the history of

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

and the Muslims of Spain. He worked on editing and translating the Arabic sources for the medieval history of Spain, often with Spanish Arabist

Emilio García Gómez Emilio García Gómez, 1st Count of Alixares (4 June 1905 – 31 May 1995) was a Spanish Arabist, literary historian and critic, whose talent as a poet enriched his many translations from Arabic. Life Emilio García Gómez decided to pursue ...

. His writings about Muslims scholarship were both admiring and critical. He was anticolonial in his leanings, and he tended to ignore or underplay Jewish sources and obfuscate his own Jewish origins to avoid French

Antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

Selected works

* * ''Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane'', (1944-1953) * ''Séville musulmane au début du XII^e siècle'' * ''L'Espagne musulmane au X^e siècle. Institutions et vie sociale'' (Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 1932)

References

Sources

* Park, Thomas Kerlin and Aomar Boum, "Lévi-Provençal, Évariste", ''Historical dictionary of Morocco'', 2016, pp. 309–10. * Wasserstein, David, "Nota biographica: Makhlouf Levi and Evariste Lévi-Provençal", ''Al-Qanṭara'', 21 (2000): 211–214.

External links

Évariste Lévi-Provençal at BibilioMonde

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levi-Provencal, Evariste 1894 births People from Algiers 1956 deaths Algerian Jews University of Algiers faculty University of Paris faculty Algerian emigrants to France French Arabists French scholars of Islam 20th-century French historians Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Scholars of Al-Andalus history