Albert Hourani was born in 1921 and grew up, as his father wished, in Lebanon. He obtained his PhD from the University of London and taught at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge before joining the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London as a lecturer. He became professor of Arabic literature at SOAS where he remained until his retirement in 1987. He has since served as visiting professor at various universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Princeton
His publications include books on Arabic literature, history and culture, as well as a biography of the twelfth-century Lebanese poet Ibn al-Shatir.
In the seventh century the Arabs created a new world into which other peoples were drawn. In the nineteenth and twentieth, they were themselves drawn into a new world created in western Europe.Albert Hourani
We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign people. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing if higher value than truth itselfAlbert Hourani
