Sadiq Jalal al-Azm

Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm
Sadiq al-Azm at University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
Born	1934 Damascus, Syrian Republic
Died	December 11, 2016(2016-12-11) (aged 81–82) Berlin, Germany
Nationality	Syrian

Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm (Arabic: صادق جلال العظم‎ Ṣādiq Jalāl al-‘Aẓm; 1934 – December 11, 2016) was a Professor Emeritus of Modern European Philosophy at the University of Damascus in Syria and was, until 2007, a visiting professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His main area of specialization was the work of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, but he later placed a greater emphasis upon the Islamic world and its relationship to the West, evidenced by his contribution to the discourse of Orientalism. Al-Azm was also known as a human rights advocate and a champion of intellectual freedom and free speech.

Al-Azm was born in Damascus, Syrian Republic, into the prominent Al-Azm family. The Al-Azm family rose to prominence in the eighteenth century under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Greater Syria.

Al-Azm was schooled in Beirut, Lebanon, earning a B.A. in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut in 1957. Al-Azm earned an M.A. in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1961 from Yale University, majoring in Modern European Philosophy.

In 1963, after finishing his Ph.D., he began teaching at the American University of Beirut. His 1968 book Al-Nakd al-Dhati Ba’da al-Hazima (Self-Criticism After the Defeat) (Dar al-Taliah, Beirut) analyzes the impact of the Six Day War on Arabs. Many of his books are banned in Arab nations (with the exception of Lebanon).