Alastair Hamilton
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Alastair Andrew Hamish Hamilton FBA (born 20 May 1941) is an English historian.


Education

The only son of the
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ...
and his second wife Yvonne Vicino
Pallavicino Pallavicino () is an Italian surname, derived from a medieval given name. Notable people with the name include: * the following members of the noble Pallavicini family: ** Antonio Pallavicino (1441–1507), Italian Roman Catholic cardinal ** Batti ...
, Hamilton was educated at
Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
and read Modern Languages at
King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...
, proceeding MA in 1967. He received his
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
Divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...
in 1982.


Career

After working for the International Cultural Centre in
Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...
and as a publisher and translator in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, he was appointed to lecture in English literature at the
University of Urbino The University of Urbino Carlo Bo (, ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, in the region of Marche, in north-eastern central Italy. The main campus occupies numerous buildings throughout the historic Urbino town center and the ...
in Italy in 1977. Having specialised in the study of the
Radical Reformation The Radical Reformation represented a response to perceived corruption both in the Catholic Church and in the expanding Magisterial Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and many others. Starting in Germany and Switzerland in the 16th cen ...
and Western relations with the Arab world, he became the Dr C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Professor of the
History of Ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...
at the
University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...
in Holland in 1985, and in 1987 Professor of the History of the Radical Reformation (Anabaptistica) at the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
. In 2003 he was awarded an S.T. Lee Fellowship and in 2004 was appointed the Arcadian Visiting research professor at the
School of Advanced Study The School of Advanced Study (SAS), a postgraduate-only institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences. It was established in 1994 and ...
, London University, attached to the
Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...
. In 2004 he was elected a corresponding fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
and has been a full fellow since 2013, when he settled in London. In 2016 he held the chair of
Coptic studies Coptology is the scientific study of the Coptic people. Origin The European interest in Coptology may have started as early as the 15th century AD. The term was used in 1976 when the First International Congress of Coptology was held in Cairo ...
at the American University in
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. In 2017 he was appointed a Senior Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute, and in 2022 he became an Honorary Fellow. In 2020 Hamilton, disappointed by
Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
and the Conservative Government, settled permanently in Italy.


Principal publications

* '' The Appeal of Fascism: A Study of Intellectuals and Fascism 1919–1945'' (Anthony Blond, London, 1971) * ''The Family of Love'' (James Clarke, Cambridge, 1981) * ''William Bedwell the Arabist'' 1563-1632 (Brill, Leiden, 1985) * ''Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Alumbrados'' (James Clarke, Cambridge, 1992) * ''Europe and the Arab World'' (The Arcadian Library, London and Oxford University Press 1994) * ''The Apocryphal Apocalypse: The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Ezra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment'' (Oxford University Press, 1999) * ''Arab Culture and Ottoman Magnificence in Antwerp's Golden Age'' (The Arcadian Library, London, and Oxford University Press, 2001) * ''The Family of Love. I: Hendrik Niclaes''. Bibliotheca Dissidentium. Répertoire des non-conformistes religieux des seizième et dix-septième siècles, vol. XXII, ed. André Séguenny (=Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana CXCI), Éditions Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden/Bouxwiller, 2003) * (with Francis Richard), ''André Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France'' (The Arcadian Library, London, and Oxford University Press, 2004) * ''The Copts and the West, 1439–1822: The European Discovery of the Egyptian Church''. (Oxford University Press, 2006) * ''An Arabian Utopia: The Western Discovery of Oman'' (The Arcadian Library, London, and Oxford University Press, 2010) * ''The Arcadian Library: Western Appreciation of Arab and Islamic Civilization'' (The Arcadian Library, London, and Oxford University Press, 2011) *''The Family of Love. II: Hiël (
Hendrik Jansen van Barrefelt Hendrik Jansen van Barrefelt (c. 1520 – c. 1594) was a weaver, a Christian mystic and the author of several spiritual works using the pseudonym Hiël. Life Hendrik Jansen van Barrefelt was born c. 1520 in Barneveld, Netherlands and died in or ...
)''. Addenda to The Family of Love. I. Hendrik Niclaes (= Bibliotheca Dissidentium vol.29 / Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana vol.235.), Éditions Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden/Bouxwiller (2013). *''Johann Michael Wansleben's Travels in the Levant 1671–1674. An Annotated Edition of His Italian Report'' (Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2018).


References


External links


Website
* https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/alastair-hamilton-FBA * https://sas.academia.edu/AlastairHamilton {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Alastair 1941 births Living people People educated at Eton College Writers from London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Corresponding fellows of the British Academy