Majid Khadduri


Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi academic. He was founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle East Studies program, a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. Internationally, he was recognized as a leading authority on a wide variety of Islamic subjects, modern history and the politics of the Middle East. He was the author of more than 35 books in English and Arabic and hundreds of articles.

Personal life

Khadduri was born in Mosul, Iraq in 1909 where he lived until 1928, when he graduated high school. Afterwards he headed to Lebanon and the American University of Beirut, where he received his B.A. in 1932. He followed this up with a Ph. D in International Law and Political Science in 1938 from the University of Chicago. From 1939 to 1947 he worked for the Iraqi Ministry of Education and as a law professor at the Higher Teachers College. In 1946 he was a member of the first Iraqi delegation to the United Nations and helped draft the organization's charter.
He had two brothers, Khalid, and Dulel, and two sisters Mathela and Khairiya. He married Madjia Dawaff, who died in 1972, and had two children: Farid and Shirin, who in turn gave him three grandchildren. He died on January 25, 2007, at a care facility in Potomac, Maryland.

Academic life

After his experiences at the United Nations, Khadduri returned to the United States, where he was a professor at Indiana University and his alma mater, the University of Chicago. He then taught at Johns Hopkins University, where he founded the SAIS Middle Eastern Studies program and served until 1970. From 1960 to 1980, he served as director of Center for Middle East Studies. It was there that he offered some of the first courses on Islamic law in the nation. His graduates included:
Throughout his tenure, he was also a visiting professor at institutions such as Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Virginia and Georgetown University. He also founded the Shaybani Society of International Law, the International Association of Middle East Studies and the University of Libya in Benghazi where he served as dean in 1957.

Honors and awards

Published works

  • Modern Libya: A Study in Political Development
  • Political Trends in the Arab World: The Role of Ideas and Ideals in Politics
  • Arab Contemporaries: The Role of Personalities in Politics
  • War and Peace in the Law of Islam
  • Socialist Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics since 1968
  • Independent Iraq, Nineteen Thirty-Two to Nineteen Fifty-Eight: A Study in Iraqi Politics
  • Arab Personalities in Politics
  • Law in the Middle East: Origin and Development of Islamic Law
  • Political Trends in the Arab World: The Role of Ideas and Ideals
  • The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation
  • The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict
  • War in the Gulf, 1990-91: The Iraq-Kuwait Conflict and Its Implications
  • ''The Islamic Conception of Justice''

Works as Editor

  • The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani's Siyar
  • Al-Shafi'i's Risala'': Treatise on the Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence''