Elias Shoufani
Born
Elias Shukri Shoufani

1932
Mi'ilya, Mandatory Palestine
Died26 January 2013 (aged 80–81)
Damascus, Syria
Alma mater
Years active1960s–1980s
Political partyFatah (until 1983)
Academic background
ThesisAl-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia (1968)
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineHistory of Islam
Institutions

Elias Shoufani (Arabic: إلياس شوفاني; 1932–2013) was a Palestinian author and historian whose studies were mostly about the history of Islam and the Israeli affairs. He was one of the leading Arab scholars in the latter topic.[1] He was a member of the Fatah movement until 1983 when he joined the dissident group in Damascus, becoming part of the Fatah upraising.

Early life and education

Shoufani was born in Mi'ilya in the Galilee in 1932.[2][3] His father was a community leader in Mi'ilya which was a Christian Arab village.[4] Their home was demolished by the Zionists in 1948.[4]

Shoufani graduated from the Teachers' Institute in Jaffa in 1949.[5] He received a degree from the Hebrew University in 1962.[5] He obtained a master's degree in 1965 and a PhD in Islamic studies in 1968 from Princeton University.[5]

Career and activities

Shoufani worked as a teacher from 1949 to 1951.[5] He first joined Georgetown University and then the University of Maryland, College Park as a faculty member between 1967 and 1972.[5][6] In the latter he worked as an associate professor of history.[1] He left his teaching post and settled in Beirut in 1972.[2] There he worked at the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) as a translator and was named as the head of the IPS's research department in 1973 which he held until 1982.[5] He also worked for the Palestine Liberation Organization Center in Beirut.[7] He became a member of the Fatah's Revolutionary Council in 1980.[5]

Shoufani left Beirut in 1982 when the Palestinian revolutionaries was forced to leave Lebanon.[2] He settled in Damascus, Syria, and continued to work for the IPS.[5] He became a member of the dissident group, known as Fatah Intifada, against the Fatah leadership.[5] However, he left the group and focused on his studies.[5]

Work

Shoufani is one of the Palestinian scholars who analysed the causes and outcomes of the Nakba.[8] He published books and articles on the history of the Middle East and Palestine. One of his books is Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia (1973) which was an extended version of his PhD thesis.[6][9] He published an autobiography in Arabic in 2009.[10] He translated Mudhakkirāt Simsār Arāḍı̄ Ṣuhyūnı̄ (Arabic: Memoirs of a Zionist land broker) in 2010.[9]

Personal life and death

Shoufani was married to an American woman, and they divorced before he left the US.[11] He later married Yasmine, an American woman of Palestinian origin.[11][12] They had two daughters.[11]

Shoufani died of a heart attack in Damascus on 26 January 2013.[5]

Legacy

His daughter, Hind, produced a documentary, Trip Along Exodus, in memory of Elias Shoufani. It was premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2014.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Sherene Seikaly (2022). "In the Shadow of War: The Journal of Palestine Studies as Archive". Journal of Palestine Studies. 51 (2): 13. doi:10.1080/0377919X.2022.2050630.
  2. 1 2 3 Rashid Khalidi. "In Remembrance: Elias Shoufani". Institute for Palestine Studies. Retrieved 8 November 2023. Citing Journal of Palestine Studies 42(3), Spring 2013
  3. ↑ Elias Shoufani (Summer 1972). "The Fall of a Village". Journal of Palestine Studies. 1 (4): 108–121. doi:10.2307/2535666. JSTOR 2535666.
  4. 1 2 Shoukri Abed (1979). "Galilee Village Fights Israeli Land Grab". Middle East Report (83): 25. doi:10.2307/3012398. JSTOR 3012398.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Elias Choufani". all4palestine.org. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  6. 1 2 Elias S. Shoufani (1973). Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781487579920. ISBN 9781487579920.
  7. ↑ Clovis Maksoud (31 January 2013). "Remembering Elias Shoufani". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  8. ↑ Nur Masalha (2014). "Liberating Methodologies and Nakba Studies: Palestinian History and Memory from below as Sites of Lifelong Learning". Holy Land Studies. 13 (1): 34–35. doi:10.3366/hls.2014.0077.
  9. 1 2 Feissal Darraj (April 2012). "Book review". Contemporary Arab Affairs. 5 (2): 307. doi:10.1080/17550912.2012.668327. JSTOR 48599892.
  10. ↑ Philipp O. Amour (2018). "Yusif Sayigh: Personal Account of the Palestinian National Movement". Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. 17 (1): 141. doi:10.3366/hlps.2018.0184.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Maureen Clare Murphy (9 December 2014). "A cinematic ode to an absent dad and Palestinian revolutionary". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  12. ↑ Karim Traboulsi (25 May 2016). "Portrait of the Palestinian revolutionary as a Shakespearean character". The New Arab. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
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