R. Stephen Humphreys is an American historian specializing in the history of
Southwest Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
and
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
. He was the 'Abd al-Aziz al-Sa'ud Professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...
and is now an emeritus professor at that institution.
Humphreys received a PhD from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1969.
Humphreys' ''Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age'' has been widely reviewed and cited as a good introductory work on the region. He has also written a history of the
Ayyubids
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...
, ''From Saladin to the Mongols'' (1977), and a biography of the first
Umayyad caliph
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
,
Mu'awiya I
Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
, ''Mu'awiya ibn abi Sufyan: From Arabia to Empire'' (2006).
A
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...
was published in Humphreys' honor by the Darwin Press based on lectures given at a conference at the
College of St. Benedict in Minnesota.
Sources
*Contributor listing, ''The Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol. 1, Islamic Egypt 640-1517''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Humphreys, R. Stephen
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
University of Michigan alumni
University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
American male non-fiction writers