Haggai Erlich

Haggai Erlich
Haggai Erlich in 2007
Born	March 29, 1942 (1942-03-29) (age 75) Tel Aviv
Nationality	Israeli
Occupation	Professor of Middle Eastern History

Haggai Erlich (born 1942) is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and an academic adviser at the Open University of Israel where he is the head of Middle Eastern History studies. He is the Landau Prize recipient for 2010 in African Studies.

Haggai Erlich was born to a working-class family in Tel Aviv, was a member of the leftist youth movement Hashomer Hatsair and studied in the Oriental Class of Tel Aviv municipality secondary school D. He served in the Nahal paratroops battalion and as a reservist fought in the battle on Jerusalem in 1967 Six-Day War. He composed some of the paratroops' popular songs, some of which are still in circulation. Between 1959 and 1969 he was one of Israel leading high-jumpers and represented the country in international athletic meetings.

In 1989 in the World Masters Games in Denmark, he came second in the 45 – 50 category, clearing 1.65m. In the 1960s he played basketball in Israel's premier league and in 1997 won the academic staff tennis championship.

Erlich completed his B.A. studies in Tel Aviv University in General History and History of the Middle East and Africa, and his M.A. studies in the Hebrew University under the guidance of Professor Gabriel Baer (cum laude, 1969). His thesis was on the tribes of Yemen and their role in the civil war. In 1973 he received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he wrote his thesis on the History of Ras Alula, Ethiopia's national hero, under the guidance of professors Richard Gray and Edward Ullendorff.

Erlich taught in Tel Aviv University from 1973 till his retirement in 2004. He served there as head of graduate studies in the Middle Eastern History Department, School of History. He was a visiting professor at Concordia, Montreal, 1978–1979, Georgetown University, 1985–1986 and 1992–1992, and in San Diego State University, 1999-2000. He is an associate editor of Northeast African Studies, Michigan, a member of the International Committee of Ethiopian Studies, the "field expert" on Islam and the Middle East in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Hamburg, and the head of the editorial board of the journal of Israel's Association of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (MEISA), Hamizrah Hehadash. From 1983 he has headed the development of Middle Eastern studies in the Open University of Israel.