Bernard Lewis, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Bernard Lewis

British-American historian

Date of Birth: 31-May-1916

Place of Birth: Stoke Newington, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 19-May-2018

Profession: historian, university teacher

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About Bernard Lewis

  • Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specializing in oriental studies.
  • He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator.
  • Lewis was the Cleveland E.
  • Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
  • Lewis' expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
  • He was also noted in academic circles for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire.Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office.
  • After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 2007 and 1999, respectively, Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East" and "the most influential postwar historian of Islam and the Middle East".
  • Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration.
  • However, his support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject.
  • Lewis argued that the deaths of the Armenian Genocide resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements and that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
  • These views prompted a number of scholars to accuse Lewis of genocide denial and resulted in a successful civil lawsuit against him in a French court.

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