Reuven Amitai

{{short description|Israeli-American historian and writer (born 1955)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Reuven Amitai | native_name = ראובן עמיתי | native_name_lang = he | image = Professor Reuven Amitai.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age |1955|8|23|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], United States | death_date =  | death_place = | citizenship = | fields = | workplaces = | alma_mater = [[University of Pennsylvania]] | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Pre-modern Islamic studies | awards = | spouse = }}

'''Reuven Amitai''' ({{langx|he|ראובן עמיתי}}; born August 23, 1955), also '''Reuven Amitai-Preiss''', is an [[Israeli-American]] historian and writer, specializing in pre-modern [[Islamic]] civilization, especially Syria and Palestine during the time of the [[Mamluk Empire]].<ref>[http://www.kahnplus.com/ftp/NEW/authors/amitai_reuven.htm "Reuven Amitai"] at Kahnplus.com</ref> In his 20s he moved to Israel, and became history professor at the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]. As of 2012 he is the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University.<ref name=focus/><ref>[http://www.getcited.org/mbrx/PT/99/MBR/10095125 Publications] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303234355/http://www.getcited.org/mbrx/PT/99/MBR/10095125 |date=2012-03-03 }}</ref>

==Biography== Amitai was born in Philadelphia in 1955, and studied at the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. In 1976 he made the ''[[aliyah]]'' to Israel, intending to live and work on a [[kibbutz]] while also pursuing [[Middle Eastern Studies]]. He worked at the kibbutz for six years as a [[welder]], and then decided to return to academic studies. He enrolled at the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], where he eventually received a Masters and Doctorate, focusing on the history of Islam, especially during the time of the Crusades, the [[Mamluk]]s, and the [[Mongol Empire]], a time period spanning the 11th to 16th centuries. He spent a year as a visiting fellow at [[Princeton University]] from 1990–91, and [[St. Antony's College]] in Oxford from 1996–97. Returning to the Hebrew University, he became a teacher, then [[Chairman]] of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from 1997–2001, and director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies twice, in 2001–04 and 2008–10.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://islamization.huji.ac.il/members_amitai.html |title = The Formation of Muslim Society in Palestine - Eretz Israel}}</ref> Around 2005, he became director of the [[Nehemia Levtzion]] Center for Islamic Studies, whose goal was to encourage research public activity related to Islamic studies.<ref name=focus>{{cite journal|title=Prof. Amitai takes pride in graduate program|journal=Focus 32: Newsletter of the Rothberg International School|publisher=The Hebrew University of Jerusalem|date=Spring 2006|page=7|url=http://overseas.huji.ac.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/focus_32.pdf|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008043108/http://overseas.huji.ac.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/focus_32.pdf|archivedate=2013-10-08}}</ref> From 2010 to 2014, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

==Selected publications==

===Books=== * {{cite book | author = Amitai-Preiss, Reuven | title = Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Îlkhânid War, 1260–1281 | year = 1995 | location = Cambridge, UK; New York, USA | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn = 978-0-521-46226-6 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/mongolsmamluksma0000amit }}

===Articles=== * {{cite journal|title=The Conversion of Tegüder Ilkhan to Islam|year=2001|issue=XXV|pages=15–43|journal=[[Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam]]}} * {{cite journal|title=In the Aftermath of 'Ayn Jâlût: The Beginnings of the Malmûk-Îlkhânid Cold War|journal=Al-Masaq|issue=10|pages=1–21|year=1990}} * {{cite journal|title=Mamluk Perceptions of the Mongol-Frankish Rapprochement|year=1992|volume=7|pages=50–65|journal=[[Mediterranean Historical Review]]|doi=10.1080/09518969208569631|last1=Amitai-Preiss|first1=Reuven}} * {{cite journal|title=A Fourteenth-Century Mamluk Inscription from Rural Palestine|journal=[[Israel Exploration Journal]]|year=1994|issue=44|pages=234–242}} * {{cite book|title=The Court of the Il-khans, 1290-1340|chapter=New material from the Mamluk sources for the biography of Rashid al-Din|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|editor=Theresa Fitzherbert & Julian Raby|location=Oxford & New York|type = Conference paper|year=1996|pages=23–37}} * {{cite journal|last1=Amitai-Preiss |first1=Reuven |title=Ghazan, Islam, and Mongol tradition: a View from the Mamluk Sultanate|year=1996|journal=[[Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies]]|volume=59|pages=1–10|doi=10.1017/s0041977x00028524 }} * {{cite journal|title=A Note on a "Mamlûk" Drum from Bethsaida|journal=Israel Exploration Journal|issue=47|pages=113–116|year=1997}} * {{cite journal |title= Mongol Raids into Palestine (A.D. 1260 and 1300) |journal= [[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society]] |year= 1987 |issue= 2 |pages= 236–255 |jstor= 25212151 |location= Cambridge, UK; New York, USA |publisher= Cambridge University Press |last= Amitai |first= Reuven }} * {{cite book |title = Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades|chapter=Edward of England and Abagha Ilkhan: A reexamination of a failed attempt at Mongol-Frankish Cooperation | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=n9dEpOsfVdIC&pg=PA75 |editor= Gervers, Michael |editor2=Powell, James M. | year = 2001 | isbn = 978-0-8156-2869-9 | publisher = [[Syracuse University Press]] | location = Syracuse, New York, USA|pages=75–82}} *{{cite book|title=Warfare in Inner Asian History (500-1800)|editor=Nicola Di Cosmo|chapter=Whither the Ilkhanid Army? Ghazan's First Campaign into Syria (1299–1300)|year=2002|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|location=Leiden-Boston-Köln}} * {{cite journal|title='Ayn Jalût Revisited|journal=Tarih|issue=2|pages=119–150|year=1992}} * {{cite journal|title=An Exchange of Letters in Arabic between Abaya Îlkhân and Sultan Baybars (A.H. 667/A.D. 1268-69)|journal=[[Central Asiatic Journal]]|issue=38/1|pages=11–33|year=1994}} * {{cite book |title= The Mongol Empire and its Legacy |editor= [[David O. Morgan|Morgan, David]] |editor2= Amitai-Preiss, Reuven |chapter= Mongol Imperial Ideology and the Îlkhânid War against the Mamlûks|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OqflvIsBT_4C&q=Krawulsky |isbn= 978-90-04-11048-9 |year= 1999 |publisher= Brill |location= Leiden, The Netherlands}} * {{cite book |title = The Mamluks in Egyptian and Syrian Politics and Society|url = https://archive.org/details/mamluksegyptians00wint_184|url-access = limited|chapter=The Mongol Occupation of Damascus in 1300: A Study of Mamluk Loyalties |editor= Amalia Levanoni |editor2=Michael Winter | year = 2004 | publisher = Brill | location = Leiden-Köln-Boston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mamluksegyptians00wint_184/page/n43 21]–39}} * {{cite book |title = Logistics of Warfare in the Age of Crusades|chapter=The Logistics of the Mongol-Mamlûk War, with Special Reference to the Battle of Wâdî'l-Khaznadâr, 1299 C.E. |editor= John Prior | year = 2006 | publisher = [[Ashgate Publishing Company]] | location = Ashgate|pages=25–42|type = Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Center for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, 30 Sept.-4 Oct. 2002}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://reuvenamitai.huji.ac.il/ Personal site of Prof. Reuven Amitai] *[http://reuvenamitai.huji.ac.il/publications List of published works by Reuven Amitai] *[http://reuvenamitai.huji.ac.il/book/speeches A speech by Reuven Amitai in Estoril Conferences of 2013]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amitai, Reuven}} [[Category:1955 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American people of Israeli descent]] [[Category:Writers from Philadelphia]] [[Category:20th-century Israeli historians]] [[Category:Historians of the Middle East]] [[Category:Jewish scholars of Islam]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]] [[Category:21st-century Israeli historians]]