Jawad Ali
- Died
- 1408 AH
- Born in
- -
Jawad Ali (1325–1408 AH / 1907–1987 CE) was an Iraqi historian and linguist, best known for his ten-volume historical work al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab qabl al-Islam ("The Detailed History of the Arabs before Islam") .
Early Life and Education
Jawad Ali was born in al-Kazimiyya, Iraq . He completed his early schooling in Baghdad and then traveled to Germany to pursue his higher education . There, he studied South Arabian dialects and pre-Islamic Arabian history under the German orientalist Rudolf Strothmann at the University of Hamburg, where he earned his doctorate in Arabic history in 1938 .
Career and Scholarly Activities
Upon returning to Iraq, Ali fulfilled his military service . In 1941, he volunteered to defend his country against British forces; he was arrested upon his return to Baghdad and later released . He served as secretary of the Committee for Writing, Translation, and Publication, which formed the nucleus of the Iraqi Academy of Sciences established in 1947, becoming an active member and secretary of the academy .
Ali held memberships in several scholarly bodies across the Arab world and abroad, including election to the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in 1952 and membership in the Jordan Academy of Arabic, and he taught as a visiting professor at various universities worldwide .
His historical methodology relied extensively on epigraphic inscriptions, classical Greco-Roman and Syriac writings, Jewish and Christian accounts, as well as early Islamic literature . His mentor Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari suggested the title of his magnum opus, al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab qabl al-Islam, an expanded revision of his earlier work on pre-Islamic history . He also wrote Tarikh al-Arab fi al-Islam: al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah ("History of the Arabs in Islam: The Prophetic Biography") .
Death
Ali died on 3 Safar 1408 AH (26 September 1987 CE) following an incurable illness .
Answer updated
List of Works
Al-Mufassal fi Tarikh al-Arab qabl al-Islam (The Detailed History of the Arabs before Islam) is an encyclopedic historical work on pre-Islamic Arabia. Published in ten volumes, it provides an exhaustive, multidisciplinary account of the political, religious, cultural, and social history of the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam.