Gustave Edmund von Grunebaum (1 September 1909 in
Vienna, Austria – 27 February 1972 in
Los Angeles, Cal., born Gustav Edmund
Ritter von Grünebaum[1]) was an Austrian
historian and
Arabist.
Born in
Vienna, Grunebaum received his
Ph.D. in Oriental Studies at the
University of Vienna in 1931 with a dissertation on classical Arabic poetry. When
Nazi Germany absorbed Austria in the
Anschluss of 1938, he went to the United States, where he was given a position at the Asia Institute in
New York City by
Arthur Upham Pope, an eminent authority on Persian art and antiquities who used the institute to help a number of displaced German scholars find work in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.[2] In 1943, he moved on to the
University of Chicago, and was made professor of Arabic in 1949. In 1957, Grunebaum was appointed professor of Near Eastern History and the director of a new department called the Near Eastern Center at
UCLA. He was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963 and the
American Philosophical Society in 1968.[3][4] He died in Los Angeles at the age of 62 following brief battle with cancer. The Near Eastern Center was later renamed in Grunebaum's honor.[5]
1937, Islam and medieval Hellenism: social and cultural perspectives
1953, Medieval Islam
1955, In Search of Wealth: A Study of the Emergence of Commercial Operations in the Melanesian Society of Southeastern Papua (co-authored with Cyril S Belshaw and Joe Ben Wheat)
1964, Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity
1964, French African literature: some cultural implications
1964, Parallelism, Convergence, and Influence in the Relations of Arab and Byzantine Philosophy, Literature, and Piety
1965, Islam: experience of the holy and concept of man
1971, Theology and law in Islam
1971, Arabic poetry. Theory and development (editor)
1981 (reprint), Themes in medieval Arabic literature
2003, Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning (co-authored with Burhān al-Dīn Zarnūjī and Theodora Mead Abel)
2005 (reprint), Classical Islam: A History, 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D., 1972
2008 (reprint), Mohammedan Festivals
2011 (reprint), A Tenth Century Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism: The Sections on Poetry of Al-Baqillani's I'jaz Al-Qur'an
Articles
'Toynbee’s Concept of Islamic Civilization’ in Gargan, Edward T., ed., The Intent of Toynbee’s History : A Cooperative Appraisal (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1955).