David Ayalon, 84, Israeli Scholar of Muslim History and Arabic - the New York Times

12/5/2018 David Ayalon, 84, Israeli Scholar Of Muslim History and Arabic - The New York Times

ARCHIVES | 1998

David Ayalon, 84, Israeli Scholar Of Muslim History and Arabic

By JOEL GREENBERG JUNE 27, 1998 David Ayalon, a scholar of Muslim history who pioneered research on the Mameluke dynasties of Egypt and compiled what is considered the most authoritative Arabic-Hebrew dictionary, died in Jerusalem on Thursday. He was 84. The cause was cancer, acquaintances said. Born in Haifa in 1914, Professor Ayalon received a doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and founded its department of modern Middle East studies in 1949, heading it until 1956. From 1963 to 1967 he headed the Institute of Asian and African Studies at the Hebrew University. He was most widely known in Israel for the Arabic-Hebrew dictionary that he compiled with Prof. Pesach Shinar. The volume has become a standard tool for generations of Israeli students of Arabic and a resource for Arabic speakers studying Hebrew. First published in 1947, the ''Arabic-Hebrew Dictionary of Modern Arabic'' has gone through 22 printings and has sold more than 80,000 copies. Professor Ayalon did ground-breaking research on the Mamelukes, a military caste of former slaves that ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517. ''Today he is undoubtedly first in the world in the study of this field,'' Professor Shinar said. ''The bottom line of his research was that it was the Mamelukes who saved Islam from the invading Mongols who sacked Baghdad. He had a broad view, and his work covered wide areas that were critical to the fate of the region and the history of Islam.'' In 1972 Professor Ayalon was awarded Israel's highest civilian award, the Israel Prize, for his studies of the army and society in Muslim lands. He was 4recently named an honorary member of the American Historical Association, Subscribe to The New York Times. SEE MY OPTIONS Subscriber login ARTICLES REMAINING

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becoming one of only 82 foreign scholars so recognized since the first honorary membership was awarded in 1885. He contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of Islam, and his latest work, ''Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans,'' is to be published in Israel in the coming months. Professor Ayalon is survived by his wife, Prof. Myriam Rosen-Ayalon of the Hebrew University, a leading authority on Islamic art and archeology. Subscribe and see the full article in TimesMachine New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.

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A version of this obituary; biography appears in print on June 27, 1998, on Page B00008 of the National edition with the headline: David Ayalon, 84, Israeli Scholar Of Muslim History and Arabic.

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