Sir H. A. R. Gibb | |
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| Born | Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (1895-01-02)2 January 1895 Alexandria, Egypt |
| Died | 22 October 1971(1971-10-22) (aged 76) Shipston-on-Stour,Warwickshire, England |
| Nationality | Scottish |
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| Discipline | History |
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| Notable students | Wilfred Cantwell Smith[1] |
Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen GibbFBA (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), known asH. A. R. Gibb,[2] was a Scottish historian andOrientalist.[3]
Gibb was born on Wednesday, 2 January 1895, inAlexandria, Egypt, to Alexander Crawford Gibb, the son of John Gibb of Gladstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and Jane Ann Gardner ofGreenock, Scotland. His father died in 1897, following which his mother took up a teaching position in Alexandria. Hamilton returned to Scotland for his formal education at the age of five: first, four years of private tuition, after which he started at theRoyal High School, Edinburgh in 1904, staying until 1912. His education was focused onclassics, though it included French, German, andphysical sciences. In 1912, Hamilton matriculated atUniversity of Edinburgh, joining the new honours program inSemitic languages (Hebrew,Arabic, andAramaic). Hamilton's mother died in 1913 while he was studying in his second year at university. He had two brothers, Euston Gibb and Archibald Gibb.(family knowledge)
DuringWorld War I, Gibb broke off his studies at theUniversity of Edinburgh to serve for theRoyal Artillery of the United Kingdom in France from February 1917 and for several months in Italy as acommissioned officer. He was commissioned at the age of 19.
He was awarded a "war privilege"undergraduate Master of Arts (MA) because of his service until theArmistice of 11 November 1918.
After the war Gibb studied Arabic atSOAS University of London, gaining hispostgraduate MA in 1922.[4] His MA thesis, published later by theRoyal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland as a monograph, was on theMuslim conquest of Transoxiana.
From 1921 to 1937 Gibb taught Arabic literature at the then School of Oriental Studies, guided by ProfessorThomas Arnold, becoming a professor there in 1930.[5] During this time he was an editor of theEncyclopaedia of Islam.[4] Among his students was the British Arabist and Reader in Arabic,James Heyworth-Dunne.[6] In 1937 Gibb succeededDavid Samuel Margoliouth asLaudian Professor of Arabic with a Fellowship atSt John's College, Oxford, where he stayed for eighteen years.[4]
In 1955, Gibb became the James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and University Professor atHarvard University.[4][5] He became director of the Center for Middle East Studies in 1957, and retired in 1963.[7]
H. A. R. Gibb was one of the trustees of theE. J. W. Gibb Memorial, an organisation which since 1905 has published theGibb Memorial Series.
Gibb worked in three areas, Arabic literature and language, Islamic history and institutions, and Islam. AfterThe Arab Conquests in Central Asia, his first major work wasArabic Literature – An Introduction (1926). His most important work on Islam wasModern Trends in Islam (1947) andMohammedanism: An Historical Survey (1949), later republished asIslam: An Historical Survey. One of his major late works wasStudies on the Civilization of Islam (1962),
Also in 1922 Gibb married Helen Jessie Stark. They had one son, Ian (1923–2005), and one daughter, Dorothy (1926–2006, now Dorothy Greenslade).[4]
Gibb died on 22 October 1971.
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 1954 photographic portrait (Harvard University) Retrieved 24 April 2011 |
Chair established byWilliam Laud | |
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