Majid Khadduri

Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi-born academic, professor of Middle East Studies and director of research and education at the Middle East Institute. He was born in Mosul, Iraq in 1909 and received his postgraduate training at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. He worked at the Iraqi Ministry of Education and as a law professor at the Higher Teachers College. In 1946, he was a member of the first Iraqi delegation to the United Nations and helped draft the organization's charter. He then moved to the United States, where he taught at Indiana University, the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University. He founded the SAIS Middle East Studies program, a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., and served as its director from 1960 to 1980. He was recognized as a leading authority on a wide variety of Islamic subjects, modern history and the politics of the Middle East. He published more than 35 books in English and Arabic and hundreds of articles on topics such as Islamic law, war and peace, democracy and human rights. He received many honors and awards, such as the Order of Merit from Egypt, the Order of the Two Rivers from Iraq, and honorary fellowships from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the American Institute of Architects. He died on 25 January 2007 in Potomac, Maryland, at the age of 97. He is considered one of the most eminent scholars of Middle Eastern studies.