Issa J. Boullata (‎; February 25, 1929 – May 1, 2019) was a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

scholar, writer, and translator of

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

Biography

He was born 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 ...

on February 25, 1929 during the British Mandate of Palestine. He obtained a First Class BA (Honours) in Arabic and Islamic studies in 1964 followed by a PhD in Arabic literature in 1969, both from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He taught Arabic studies for seven years at

Hartford Seminary The Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary) is a private theological university in Hartford, Connecticut. History Hartford Seminary's origins date back to 1833 when the Pastoral Union of Connecti ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, before moving to

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, Montreal, in 1975.Profile in Words without Borders website
/ref> He taught graduate courses in Arabic Literature, Modern Arab Thought, and Qur'anic Studies at McGill's Institute of Islamic Studies until his retirement in 2004, and the honorific title of Emeritus Professor was conferred upon him on September 1, 2009. Boullata was the author of books on

and poetry, and on the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

. He also wrote articles and book reviews for scholarly journals, as well as articles for encyclopedias. He was a translator of Arabic literature and a two-time winner of the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award. He was a contributing editor of Banipal magazine of London, and his literary translations have appeared in issues of the magazine. Boullata served as consultant for "The Blue Metropolis Al-Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize" offered by the Blue Metropolis Foundation at its annual international literary festival in Montreal. Named after the poet Al-Majidi Ibn Dhaher, the prize, worth CAD $5,000, was initiated in 2007 by his efforts with donors. The prize was sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, and was given yearly to a creative Arab writer at the recommendation of a jury composed of an international roster of poets, novelists and literary professionals. The prize is currently on hiatus. Marita Seward, of Oneonta, New York, was Boullata's wife for 56 years. She died on 15 August 2016. The couple had one daughter and three sons, including David Boullata, a broadcaster (pseudonym: David Tyler) in Montreal, communications lecturer, and writer. Kamal Boullata, a painter, art historian, and literary writer, is Issa Boullata's brother and lives in Berlin, Germany.

Books

As author

* ''Outlines of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

in Modern Arabic Poetry'' (1960), new edition (2014) (in Arabic الرومانسية ومعالمها في الشعر العربي الحديث) * '' Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: His Life and Poetry'' (1971; 6th ed. 2007) (in Arabic بدر شاكر السياب : حياته وشعره) * ''Modern Arab Poets, 1950–1975'' (1976) (an anthology in English translation) * ''Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought'' (1990) * ''A Window on

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

: Studies in the Works of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra'' (2002) (in Arabic نافذة على الحداثة: دراسات في أدب جبرا إبراهيم جبرا ) * ''Homecoming to Jerusalem'' (1998) (a novel in Arabic عائد إلى القدس) * ''A Retired Gentleman and Other Stories'' (2007) (a short-story collection in English); republished as ''True Arab Love and Other Short Stories'' (2016); translated into French as ''Amours Arabes'' (2016) * ''Rocks and a Wisp of Soil'' (2005) (in Arabic صخر وحفنة من تراب : مقالات في النقد الأدبي ),(essays in literary criticism) * ''The Bells of Memory: A Palestinian Boyhood in Jerusalem'' (2014)( a memoir, covering years from 1929 to 1948); translated into French as ''Les Échos de la Mémoire: Une Enfance Palestinienne à Jérusalem''(2014).

As editor

* ''Critical Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature'' (1980) * ''Tradition and

Modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...

in Arabic Literature'' (1997, with Terri DeYoung) * ''Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the

'' (2000) * ''The Miraculous Inimitability of the Holy Qur'an throughout History'' (2006) (in Arabic إعجاز القرآن الكريم عـبر التاريخ)

As translator

* ''Embers and Ashes: Memoirs of an Arab Intellectual'' by Hisham Sharabi * ''Flight Against Time'' a novel by Emily Nasrallah * ''Fugitive Light'' a novel by Mohammed Berrada * ''My Life'' an autobiography by

Ahmad Amin Ahmad Amin (Arabic: أحمد أمين), (1954-1886) was an Egyptian historian and writer. He wrote a series of books on the history of the Islamic civilization (1928–1953), a famous autobiography (''My Life'', 1950), as well as an important d ...

* ''Princesses' Street:

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Memories'' an autobiography by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra * ''The First Well: A

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

Boyhood'' an autobiography by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (winner of the 1993 University of Arkansas Press Award for Translation from Arabic) * ''The Game of Forgetting'' a novel by Mohammed Berrada * ''The Square Moon'' short stories by Ghada Samman (winner of the 1997

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

Press Award) * ''The Unique Necklace'' a compendium of Arabic classics (Garnet Publishing, UK, vols. 1,2,3—2006,2009,2011) by 10th-century Andalusian writer

Ibn Abd Rabbih Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (; 860–940) was an Arab writer and poet widely known as the author of ''al-ʿIqd al-Farīd'' (''The Unique Necklace''). Biography He was born in Cordova, now in Spain, and descended from a freed slave of ...

* ''The Caliph's Sister'', a novel by Jurji Zaidan * ''Three Treatises on the I`jaz of the Qur'an'', Qur'anic & literary studies by al-Rummani, al-Khattabi, & `Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani. * Numerous poems published in Salma Khadra Jayyusi's ''Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology'' (1987) and ''Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature'' (1992), and poems and prose pieces in Banipal and elsewhere.

As translator from English to Arabic

* ''Wallace Stevens'' by William York Tindall, 1962 * ''Edith Wharton'' by

Louis Auchincloss Louis Stanton Auchincloss (; September 27, 1917 – January 26, 2010)Holcomb B. Noble and Charles McGrath''The New York Times''. Retrieved on January 27, 2010. was an American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novel ...

, 1962

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boullata, Issa J. 1929 births 2019 deaths Hartford Seminary faculty Academic staff of McGill University Palestinian scholars Writers from Jerusalem 21st-century Palestinian writers English–Arabic translators Palestinian translators Arabic–English translators 20th-century Palestinian writers Alumni of the University of London 20th-century translators Literary interpreters of the Quran

Biography

Books

As author

As editor

As translator

As translator from English to Arabic

See also

As journal editor

Festschrifts

Awards

As PhD and MA supervisor

As Arabic programming consultant

References