*** Welcome to piglix ***

Mohammed Arkoun

Mohammed Arkoun
Arkoun.jpg
Born (1928-02-01)February 1, 1928
Taourirt Mimoum, Algeria
Died September 14, 2010(2010-09-14) (aged 82)
Paris, France
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Islamic philosophy

Professor Mohammed Arkoun (Kabyle: Muḥemmed Arkun; Arabic: محمد أركون‎‎; 1 February 1928 – 14 September 2010) was an Algerian scholar and thinker of Kabyle descent. He was considered to have been one of the most influential secular scholars in Islamic studies contributing to contemporary intellectual Islamic reform. In a career of more than 30 years, he had been a critic of the tensions embedded in his field of study, advocating Islamic modernism, secularism, and humanism. During his academic career, he wrote his numerous books mostly in French, and occasionly in English and Arabic. He appeared on numerous occasions on French TV and magazines, on Berbère Télévision speaking in Berber, and on Aljazeera TV speaking in Arabic.

A native of the Kabyle village of Beni Yenni, Tizi Ouzou Province in Kabylie, Algeria, and a native speaker of the Berber language, he studied at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Algiers and at the Sorbonne in Paris (agrégé in Arabic language and Literature, 1956 and Ph.D., 1968). He established his academic reputation with his studies of the history and philosophy of Ibn Miskawayh. As he began to consider how one might rethink Islam in the contemporary world, his questioning provided a counterpoint to the predominant interpretations of both the Muslim world and the non-Muslim West. As the editor of Arabica, he broadened the journal's scope, and played a significant role in shaping Western-language scholarship on Islam. He is the author of numerous books in French, English and Arabic, including most recently: Rethinking Islam (Boulder, Colorado, 1994), L'immigration: défis et richesses (Paris, 1998) and The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought (London, 2002). His shorter studies have appeared in many academic journals and his works have been translated into several languages.


...
Wikipedia

...