https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Alfred_GuillaumeAlfred Guillaume - Revision history2026-07-30T22:01:30ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Alfred_Guillaume&diff=474097&oldid=prevTiffinyAult552 at 07:52, 18 February 20262026-02-18T07:52:37Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|British Hebrew and Islamic scholar (1888–1965)}}<br />
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Alfred Guillaume<br />
| image = <br />
| alt = Portrait of Alfred Guillaume<br />
| caption = Alfred Guillaume<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|1888|11|8}}<br />
| birth_place =<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|11|30|1888|11|8}}<br />
| death_place =<br />
| occupation = Scholar of Islam, Arabist<br />
| known_for = Translation of Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah"<br />
<br />
}}<br />
'''Alfred Guillaume''' (8 November 1888 &ndash; 30 November 1965) was a British Christian [[Arabist]], scholar of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and Islam.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title= Professor Alfred Guillaume: Arabic and Islamic Scholar |work=[[The Times]] |page=16 |date=3 December 1965}}</ref><br />
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==Career==<br />
Guillaume was born in [[Edmonton, London|Edmonton, Middlesex]], the son of Alfred Guillaume. He took up Arabic after studying Theology and Oriental Languages at the [[Wadham College, Oxford]]. In the First World War, he served in France and then in the [[Arab Bureau]] in [[Cairo]]. Guillaume was a Christian and later ordained.<ref name="times"/><br />
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He became Professor of Arabic and the Head of the Department of the Near and Middle East in the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] (SOAS), in the [[University of London]]. He was later visiting professor of Arabic at [[Princeton University]], New Jersey. He was a professor of Hebrew at [[Durham University]] from 1920 to 1930.<ref name="times"/><br />
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In the winter 1944–45, during the Second World War the [[British Council]] invited him to accept a visiting professorship at the [[American University of Beirut]] where he greatly enlarged his circle of Muslim friends. The Arab Academy of Damascus (1949) and the Royal Academy of Baghdad (1950) honoured him by electing him to their number, and the [[University of Istanbul]] chose him as their first foreign lecturer on Christian and Islamic theology. In the autumn of 1945, Guillaume succeeded his friend [[S. H. Hooke]] on the [[Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies|Samuel Davidson chair]] at the University of London, changing to the chair in Arabic in 1947 (at SOAS),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Sidney|date=1966-01-01|title=Obituary: Alfred Guillaume|jstor=611301|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=29|issue=2|pages=478–481|doi=10.1017/s0041977x00060080|doi-access=free}}</ref> and was also a professor of Hebrew from 1947 to 1955. In 1955, Guillaume served as president to the [[Society for Old Testament Study]].<ref name="times"/><br />
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In 1916, he married Margaret Woodfield Leadbitter, daughter of Rev. William Oram Leadbitter, and they had two sons and two daughters. He died in [[Wallingford, Berkshire]] at age 77.<ref name="times"/><br />
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==Works==<br />
He was best known as the author of ''Islam'', published by [[Penguin Books]], and as co-author, with [[Thomas Walker Arnold|Sir Thomas Arnold]], of ''The Legacy of Islam'', in the [[Legacy series|''Legacy'' series]], which has been translated into several languages. He also translated [[Ibn Ishaq]]'s "[[Sirah Rasul Allah]]", published as ''The Life of Muhammad. A translation of Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah"''.<br />
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*[https://archive.org/details/298_Alfred.Guillaume_The.Traditions.of.Islam ''The Traditions of Islam: An Introduction to the Study of the Hadith literature''] (1924). Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8369-9260-1}}<br />
*[https://archive.org/details/legacyofislam032426mbp ''The Legacy of Islam''] (with Thomas Arnold) (1931). Oxford, Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-81-7151-239-3}}<br />
*''Kitāb Nihājat al-iqdām fī ʿilm al-kalām'' / [[Abu-ʾl-Fatḥ Muḥammad Ibn-ʿAbd-al-Karīm aš- Šahrastānī]] (1934). Oxford University Press.<br />
*''Prophecy and Divination Among the Hebrews and Other Semites'' ([[Bampton Lectures]]) (1938). London: Hodder & Stoughton<br />
*''Islam'' (1954). Hammondsworth, Penguin. {{ISBN|978-0-14-013555-8}}<br />
*''The Life of Muhammad'' (1955). Oxford University Press. {{LCCN|55012845}}<br />
** Later editions include [https://archive.org/details/GuillaumeATheLifeOfMuhammad ''The Life of Muhammad''] (1967). {{ISBN|978-0196360331}} {{OCLC|911693736}}<br />
*''Hebrew and Arabic lexicography'' (1965). Leiden: Brill.<br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[List of Islamic scholars]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillaume, Alfred}}<br />
[[Category:1888 births]]<br />
[[Category:1965 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:British Arabists]]<br />
[[Category:British orientalists]]<br />
[[Category:Christian scholars of Islam]]<br />
[[Category:Academics of SOAS University of London]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century British writers]]<br />
[[Category:British military personnel of World War I]]<br />
[[Category:Arab Bureau officers]]<br />
[[Category:Academics of Durham University]]<br />
[[Category:Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study]]<br />
[[Category:People from Edmonton, London]]</div>TiffinyAult552