Profile of Mohammed Arkoun

Professor Mohammed Arkoun is one of the most prominent and influential figures in Islamic Studies today. In a career of more than 30 years, he has been an outstanding research scholar, a searching critic of the various intellectual, scientific, religious, political tensions embedded in the field of Islamic Studies, and a courageous public intellectual, carrying the banner of an often embattled Islamic modernism and humanism.

A native of Great Kabylia (Algeria), Arkoun studied at Algiers University and at the Sorbonne in Paris where he taught from 1961 to 1992. He established his scholarly reputation with his early studies (1969, 1970) on Arab Humanism in the 4th/10th century focusing on the intellectual generation of the historian and philosopher Miskawayh. As Arkoun began to consider how one might rethink Islam in the contemporary world, his sophisticated questioning provided a welcome counterpoint to the highly ideo-logical interpretations that dominated debate in both the Muslim world and the West.

As the editor of ARABICA Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, he maintained the journal’s very high standard of scholarship, considerably broadened its scope, and played a significant role in shaping Western-language scholarship on Islam. Arkoun is the author of numerous books in French, English and Arabic, including most recently: Rethinking Islam (1994), The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought; De Manhattan à Bagdad. Au-delà du Bien et du Mal, Paris 2003 ; Humanisme et Islam: Combats et Propositions(Paris 2006). His shorter studies have appeared in many academic journals and his works have been translated into several languages.

In 2001, Professor Arkoun was asked to deliver the Gifford Lectures, which enable a notable scholar to contribute to the advancement of theological and philosophical thought and was announced as the recipient of the Seventeenth Georgio Levi Della Vida Award at UCLA for his lifelong contribution to the field of Islamic Studies He was also awarded The Averroes Award for freedom of thought in Berlin in 2003.

Arkoun has taught as a visiting professor at UCLA, Princeton University, Temple University, the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, the Pontifical Institute of Arabic Studies in Rome and the University of Amsterdam; New York University 2001 and 2003. Arkoun served as a Steering Committee and a jury member for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture from 1981 to 1998. Arkoun is presently Emeritus Professor, La Sorbonne as well as Senior Research Fellow and member of the Board of Governors of The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London.

• Weblinks
• Personal Website
• Biographical Information, Writings, Center for Islam and Science
• A Discussion, "Understanding Islam", Information Bulletin