Albert Habib Hourani, ( ''Albart Ḥabīb Ḥūrānī''; 31 March 1915 – 17 January 1993) was a
Lebanese British historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
, specialising in the
history of the Middle East and
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies, sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies, West Asian Studies or South Western Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, an ...
.
Background and education
Hourani was born in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England, the son of Soumaya Rassi and Fadlo Hourani, immigrants from
Marjeyoun in what is now
South Lebanon (see
Lebanese diaspora). Fadlo had studied at what later became the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...
and settled in Manchester as a cotton merchant. Albert's brothers were
George Hourani, philosopher, historian, and classicist, and
Cecil Hourani, economic adviser to
President of Tunisia
The president of Tunisia, officially the president of the Republic of Tunisia (), is the executive head of state of Tunisia. The president exercises executive power with the assistance of a government headed by the Prime Minister of Tunisia, pr ...
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba (3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian politician and statesman who served as the Head of Government of Tunisia, prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia from 1956 to 1957, and then as the first president of Tunisia from 1 ...
. His family had converted from
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
to
Scottish Presbyterianism and his father became an elder of the local church in Manchester. Hourani himself, in turn,
converted to Catholicism in adulthood. Fadlo had extensive business contacts with the Levantine community both in Manchester and in the Ottoman Empire, and Cecil Hourani commented on the household's mixed Anglo-Levantine culture:
... to my earliest memories in Manchester there were two faces: the one Near Eastern, Lebanese, full of poetry, politics, and business; the other partly Scottish Presbyterian, full of Sunday church-going and Sunday school, partly English through an English nanny and a succession of English and Irish cooks and maids.
Fadlo Hourani tried to enroll Albert into a
preparatory school in Manchester but it did not accept him as it did not take 'foreigners'; Fadlo instead opened an
alternative school
An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, wh ...
in which Albert studied until the age of fourteen. He later studied at
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School is a 13–18 co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, Day school, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' ...
, London before attending
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...
, where he studied
Philosophy, Politics, Economics and History (with an emphasis on
international relations
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
in the politics section of the degree), graduating
first in his class in 1936.
The academic
H. A. R. Gibb was among his mentors.
Career
He taught in 1938–39 at the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...
, the first time he had lived in an Arabic speaking country
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he worked at the
Royal Institute of International Affairs
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family or royalty
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Roya ...
(aka Chatham House) and in the office of the British
Minister of State
Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...
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 ...
. When in Cairo, Hourani rented a room in
Paul Kraus's house; in 1944 Kraus was found hanged in his bathroom for an alleged suicide.
After the war's end, he worked at the Arab Office in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
and London, where he helped prepare the Arab case for the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Although he developed a liberal Arab nationalist sensibility as his education about the Middle East deepened, Hourani described himself as originally an unquestioning English liberal.
He began his academic career, which would occupy the rest of his life, in 1948, teaching at
Magdalen College
Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...
,
St. Antony's College (where he created and directed the college's Middle East Centre), the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...
, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. He ended his academic career as Fellow of St. Antony's and Reader in the History of the Modern Middle East at Oxford. Hourani trained more academic historians of the modern Middle East than any other university historian of his generation. Today his students can be found on the faculties of LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, MIT and the University of Haifa, among others.
He was appointed CBE in the
1980 Birthday Honours.
Influence on Middle Eastern studies
According to historian
Rashid Khalidi (quoted from within a series of essays gathered originally for a conference in Hourani's honor), "Hourani's students, and their students, have over the last few decades effectively populated and then produced the core of the field of modern Middle East history in North America and Europe, and parts of the Middle East and other regions as well (2016)".
Hourani's most popular work is ''
A History of the Arab Peoples'' (1991), a readable introduction to the
history of the Middle East and an international best seller. ''Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1789–1939'' (1962) is one of the first scientific attempts at a comprehensive analysis of the ''
nahda
The Nahda (, meaning 'the Awakening'), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Arab Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabs, Arab-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia, ...
'', the Arab revival of the 19th century, and the opening of the Arab world to modern European culture; it remains one of the major works on this subject. ''Syria and Lebanon. A Political Essay'' (1946) and ''Minorities in the Arab World'' (1947) are other major works. He also wrote extensive works on the
orientalist perspective on Middle Eastern cultures through the 18th and 19th centuries, and he developed the influential concept of the "
urban notables" – political and social elites in provincial Middle Eastern cities and towns that served as intermediaries between imperial capitals (such as
Istanbul under the Ottoman Turks) and provincial society.
The top book prize in the
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies, sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies, West Asian Studies or South Western Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, an ...
field is named the
Albert Hourani Book Award
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) offers four book awards at its fall annual conference.
Albert Hourani Book Award
The Albert Hourani Book Award is an award honoring scholarly non-fiction books, given by the Middle Eas ...
and it is given annually by the
Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). Hourani was an Honorary Fellow of both MESA and the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...
(AHA).
Among his students are
Abbas Amanat,
Nazih Ayubi,
Aziz al-Azmeh,
Michael Gilsenan,
Rashid Khalidi,
Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot,
Roger Owen,
Ilan Pappé, and
André Raymond (and others).
Personal life

In 1955 Hourani married Christine Mary Odile Wegg-Prosser (1914–2003), while teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford. He died in Oxford in 1993 at the age of 77. His widow died in 2003 at the age of 89. Both are buried in
Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford.
They had a daughter, Susanna Hourani, who became professor of
pharmacology
Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...
and Head of Department in the School of
Biomedical
Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine) and
Molecular Sciences of the
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...
.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hourani, Albert
1915 births
1993 deaths
Burials at Wolvercote Cemetery
20th-century English historians
Academics from Greater Manchester
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Presbyterianism
English people of Lebanese descent
English orientalists
English Roman Catholics
Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford
Harvard University faculty
Historians of the Middle East
Lebanese orientalists
Lebanese Roman Catholics
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
People educated at Mill Hill School
People from Didsbury
University of Pennsylvania faculty
American University of Beirut alumni