Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

orientalist and

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 ...

. He specialized in the studies of the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

sources about the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, and

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

of the medieval Islamic society (works on Futuwa orders). Claude Cahen was born in Paris to a French

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family.Ira M. Lapidus, review of Curiel and Gyselen (1995), ''Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient'' 39.2 (1996), pp. 189-90 After studying at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

on the rue d'Ulm, he attended the

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europ ...

, receiving a doctorate in 1940. He was a professor at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

from 1945 to 1959 and then at the Sorbonne; in 1967 he was invited to teach at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, and in 1973, he was elected to the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

. He was later elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1983. Cahen was married and had six children, including the historian Michel Cahen, who wrote a biography of his father. Cahen was a member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

from the 1930s until 1960, and remained an active

afterwards. Despite his origins, he neither self-identified as Jewish nor supported the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 1954 he published "An Introduction to the First Crusade" in the

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

journal '' Past and Present''. Cahen has been called "the ''doyen'' of Islamic social history and one of the most influential Islamic historians of iscentury," and "the best historian of the Middle East in the twentieth century." Mark Cohen describes him as a distinguished Islamic historian. He was a prisoner of war 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 ...

. The Festschrift ''Itineraires d'Orient: Hommages a Claude Cahen'', edited by Raoul Curiel and Rika Gyselen, appeared in 1995 as an honor to his "distinguished career",''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', October 1998 and an issue of the journal ''Arabica'' (43/1 (1996)) was dedicated to him. That issue also includes a nearly complete bibliography of his works.

Works

''La Syrie du Nord à l'époque des Croisades et la principauté franque d'Antioche''
thèse de doctorat es-Lettres, Université de Paris, éditions P. Geuthner (1940). ASIN : B001D5E1AQ ASIN : B0018H4LZO * ''Le régime féodal de l'Italie Normande'', 145 pages, thèse complémentaire de l'Université de Paris, éditions P. Geuthner (1940). LCCN 42034209 * « L'histoire économique et sociale de l'Orient musulman médiéval », in ''Studia Islamica'', Paris (1955). * « Les facteurs économiques et sociaux dans l'ankylose culturelle de l'Islam », in ''Classicisme et déclin culturel dans l'histoire de l'Islam''
Symposium de Bordeaux (juin 1956)
396 pages, éditions Besson et Chantemerle (1957). * « Mouvements populaires et autonomismes urbains dans l'Asie musulmane du Moyen Âge », in ''Arabica'', Brill Academic Publishers (1958–1959). Tiré à part de 91 pages (Part I, Arabica V, (p. 225–250), Part II, Arabica VI, (p. 25–56), Part III, Arabica VI, (p. 233–265) LC DS223 C24 1959 * « La changeante portée sociale de quelques doctrines religieuses », in ''L'élaboration de l'Islam'', compte rendu d
Colloque de Strasbourg sur l'Islam (juin 1959)
127 pages éditions PUF (1961). * « Points de vue sur la Révolution abbaside », dans ''Revue historique'' (1963). * ''Douanes et commerce dans les ports méditerranéens de l'Égypte médiévale'' (d'après al-Makhzumi. Minhaj), 314 pages, éditions E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1964. * '' Pre-Ottoman Turkey'', 458 pages, éditions Sidg. & J, 1968. ** traduction française augmentée : ''La Turquie pré-ottomane'', 409 pages, Institut français d'études anatoliennes, éditions Varia Turcica (1988). * « Baba Ishaq, Baba Ilyas, Hadjdji Bektash et quelques autres », in ''Turcica'', 1 (1969), (p. 53–64). * ''Turco-Byzantina et Oriens Christianus'', Londres, Variorum Reprints, 1974. * ''Les Peuples musulmans dans l'histoire médiévale'', 496 pages, éditions Institut français de Damas (1977). ASIN : B0000E8UM0 * ''Makhzûmiyyât : Études sur l'histoire économique et financière de l'Égypte médiévale'' (1977), 225 pages, Brill Academic Publishers (1 August 1997). * ''Introduction à l'histoire du monde musulman médiéval : VIIe–XVe'', 216 pages, éditions Maisonneuve (nouv. éd, 1983). * « djaych » (armée) et « hisba » (police des mœurs et des marchés), contributions à lEncyclopédie de l'Islam'', ''E.I.2'', Brill Academic Publishers, respectivement : volume II (1986), (p. 517–524) et volume III (1991), (p. 503–510). * ''Orient et Occident au temps des croisades'', 302 pages (1983) (restitue les croisades dans le contexte d'une histoire méditerranéenne), éditions Aubier Montaigne (24 septembre 1992). * ''L'Islam, des origines au début de l'Empire ottoman'', poche, 413 pages (réédition mise à jour ), éditions Hachette Littérature (17 September 1997). Références : « Claude Cahen : histoire et engagement politique. Entretien avec Maxime Rodinson » (propos recueillis par D. Gazagnadou et F. Micheau, bibliographie exhaustive des ouvrages, articles et comptes-rendus de Claude Cahen), ''Arabica'' (Brill éditeur), vol. 43, n°1 (1996), (p. 7–27)
Revue ''Arabica''

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahen, Claude 1909 births 1991 deaths École Normale Supérieure alumni French Communist Party members 20th-century French Jews French Marxist historians French Marxists French Arabists French prisoners of war in World War II Historians of the Crusades Jewish socialists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg Academic staff of the University of Paris University of Michigan faculty Writers from Paris 20th-century French historians Knights of the Legion of Honour Members of the American Philosophical Society