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Hanna Batatu: 1926-2000 ISIM NEWSLETTER 6 / 0 0 Obituary 37 Obituary LIZKEPFERLE Hanna Batatu: 1926-2000 Hanna (John) Batatu passed away on Satur- Apart from research fellowships at Har- have received the distinction of having an sights into this critical Arab country. The day, 24 June 2000, in Winsted, Connecticut, vard, MIT, and Princeton, Batatu held two entire conference held to discuss its impli- noted political scientist Rashid Khalidi after a brief battle with cancer. Batatu was major teaching appointments: at the Ameri- cations Ð at the University of Texas at Austin writes: 'This is a profound and comprehen- born in 1926 in Jerusalem; his first employ- can University of Beirut (1962-1981), and at in March 1989. The proceedings of this con- sive study of modern Syria that is unlikely to ment was as astaff officer with the Palestine Georgetown University's Center for Con- ference were later published as a book enti- be surpassed for a very long time. It is a Mandatory Government in Jerusalem in the temporary Arab Studies (1982-1994). At tled The Iraqi Revolution of 1958: The Old So- model of how social history should be writ- 1940s. Following the creation of the State of Georgetown, he held the Shaykh Sabah Al- cial Classes Revisited, edited by R. Lewis and ten, and ofhowitcanbeused to explainthe Israel in 1948, Batatu immigrated to the Salem Al-Sabah Chair of Arab Studies, and R. Fernea (London: Tauris, 1991). Batatu's politics of a complex society like Syria.' United States, living with relatives and was named Professor Emeritus upon retire- masterpiece has been described as 'an in- Hanna Batatu is survived by his brother working as a manager of a carpet company ment. He remained in the Washington area dispensable foundation for any thoughts re- and sister-in-law, Anthony and Bertha Rey- in Stamford, Connecticut, until 1951, when, untilthefallof1999.DrBatatu wasto beho- garding the creation of a new Iraqi political naud of Winsted, Connecticut, and many at the age of 25, he entered Georgetown noured on June 28 by the American Univer- order' (L. Bushkoff, Christian Science Monitor, nieces and nephews. ◆ University's Edmund A. Walsh School of For- sity in Beirut as one of their Millennium 3/4/90). eign Service. After earning his BS degree Scholars. Last year, Dr Batatu published a counter- (summa cum laude) from Georgetown in Hanna Batatu's detailed published re- part to his Iraq study, Syria's Peasantry, the 1953, he continued his higher education at search is invaluable to students and schol- Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Harvard University, where he earned a PhD ars of the modern Arab East. The first of his Their Politics (Princeton, 1999). Dedicated in Political Theory in 1960. two major works, The Old Social Classes and 'To the People of Syria', the book traces the Dr Batatu's early scholarly interests in- the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (1283 rural roots of Syria's ruling Ba'th party, ex- volved the United States and the Soviet pages, Princeton, 1978), is regarded by ploring the characteristics and power struc- Union. In his doctoral programme he shifted many scholars as one of the most significant ture of the Asad regime. As in his study of Liz Kepferle works at Georgetown University, where his focus to the Soviet Union and the Arab works of recent times dealing with Middle Iraq, Batatu relies heavily on extensive inter- since 1993 she has helped East. His dissertation was entitled 'The Eastern society and politics. Actually three views with individuals at all levels of Syrian coordinate the Master of Arts in Arab Studies Shaykh and the Peasant in Iraq, 1917-1958'. volumesinone, it isone of the few books to life, in the process providing valuable in- programme..
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