Robert Bertram Serjeant, FBA (23 March 1915 – 29 April 1993) was a British scholar, traveller, and one of the leading Arabists of his generation.

Background and career

He was born and raised in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and studied at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

under the Quranic scholar Richard Bell. He received his MA in 1935, and moved on to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, completing his PhD dissertation on Islamic textiles under the supervision of Professor Charles Ambrose Storey. He won a scholarship to work at

SOAS University of London The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

with Arthur Stanley Tritton. In 1940, he was working in

Aden Colony Aden Colony () was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1963 located in the southern part of modern-day Yemen. It consisted of the port city of Aden and also included the outlying islands of Kamaran, Perim and the Khuriya Muriya ...

, but with the

Second World War 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 ...

in progress, he was commissioned into the Aden Government Guards, spending his time in the canton of Subayhi. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1941, where he edited the "Arabic Listener" at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. When the war ended, he restarted his academic career at SOAS, and in 1947 went to research the language and society of the

Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ; ) is a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah and Mahrah, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi A ...

in South Arabia. He published a study called ''Prose and Poetry from Hadhramawt'' in 1951. In 1955, he became the chair of Modern Arabic at SOAS. In 1964, his friend Professor AJ Arberry prompted him to return to Cambridge where he was appointed Lecturer in Islamic History. He was also director of the Middle East Centre at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, remaining in this post until his retirement in 1981. Following Arberry's death in 1969, he was appointed Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic. After his retirement, he returned to his native Scotland where he continued his academic research. Two of his notable works are ''The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast'', published by the

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 1963, and ''Sanaa: an Arabian Islamic city'' (1983) which he wrote and co-edited with Professor Ronald Lewcock. The latter is regarded as the definitive work on the

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

i capital city of

Sanaa Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

. He also published ''South Arabian Hunt'' in 1976 and contributed to ''The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature'' in 1983.

Personal life; death

Bob Serjeant married Marion Robertson, a doctor, in 1941 and they went on to have two children. They were married until his death in April 1993, when he died in the garden of his cottage in Denhead,

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Estate

In 1995, his widow donated his library of nearly 5,000 volumes on Islam and the Yemen, as well as his unpublished manuscripts to the University of Edinburgh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serjeant, Robert Bertram Scottish Arabists Sanaa Scottish orientalists Scottish travel writers Academics from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 1915 births 1993 deaths Academics of SOAS University of London Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Sir Thomas Adams's Professors of Arabic Fellows of the British Academy