Khadduri, Majid 1908-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 27, 1908, in Mosul, Iraq; died January 25, 2007, in Potomac, MD. Khadduri was the founder of the first graduate center in America devoted to the study of modern Middle East issues. A 1932 graduate of the American University of Beirut, he completed a doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1938. He then returned to the Middle East, where he was a professor at the Higher Teachers and Law Colleges in Baghdad, Iraq, until 1947. This would be his last lengthy stay in the Middle East, however, and Khadduri would spend the rest of his academic career in the United States. A year as a visiting professor at Indiana University at Bloomington was followed by another year at the University of Chicago. Khadduri then joined Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Here he was founder and a faculty member of the graduate school's Middle East program. The first graduate study program of its type, here he taught such courses as Islamic law, as well as politics, history, and other subjects. He was director of the program until he retired in 1980. The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in 2001, Khadduri also founded the al-Shaybani Society of International Law, which focused on informing scholars about Muslim legal issues. Khadduri was widely recognized as an authority on Islamic and Middle Eastern law, because of such accomplishments. He penned numerous books about Middle Eastern countries and the law, as well. Among these titles are Modern Libya: A Study in Political Development (1963), Arab Contemporaries: The Role of Personalities in Politics (1973), The Islamic Concept of Justice (1984), and The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict (1988).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, February 3, 1907, p. B6.