Professor Abdessalam M. Cheddadi

Abdesselam Cheddadi was educated in France, earning a doctorate degree in arts and humanities from the University of Paris. From 1980 to 1998, he served as a professor in the Department of History at the Faculty of Education, Mohammed V University, and held the chair of professor at the University Research Institute in that Department from 1998 to the present. He is a former Associate Head of Postgraduate Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudesen Sciences Sociales in 1985, and an Associate Professor of Philosophy in 1986 at the University of Paris. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Princeton university in 1994 and Harvard university in 1998, and a Fulbright Fellow at Yale University in 2002. He is the President of the Moroccan Cultural Institute and a member of the Moroccan Society for History Research, the International Society for History, Sciences and Philosophy and the Arab World Research Group at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences. He is a member of the Permanent Committee for Programs of the Moroccan Ministry of Education and an associate member of the National Research Council at Mohammed V University.

Professor Cheddadi is a renowned Arab scholar of Islamic historiography and translation. A specialist in Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), Cheddadi published numerous books, research articles, translations and editions dealing with the thought, philosophy, and biography of this legendary Muslim thinker. In his editions of Ibn Khaldun, particularly the Mugaddimah, Cheddadi carefully reviewed all available manuscripts across the world. Among Ibn Khaldun’s books translated by Cheddadi from Arabic to French are: Le Voyage d’Occident et d’Orient [The Journey to West and East], Peuples et nations du monde I – Extraits des “Ibar” (Le Livre des exemples) [The World’s People and Nations I: Extracts from “Ibar” [The Book of Examples]; Le Livre des Exemples I: Autobiographie, Muqaddima [The Book of Examples: Autobiography, Muqaddimah] (This book has been translated into English) and Le Livre des Exemples II [The Book of Examples: The History of the Maghreb and Other Texts].

Professor Cheddadi also authored several other books and articles in French, English, and Arabic, highlighting Ibn Khaldun’s social, political, anthropological, and historical conceptions and comparing his ideas with modern theories. His books include: Ibn Khaldun Revisite [Ibn Khaldun Revisited] Ibn Khaldûn: L’homme et le théoricien de la civilization [Ibn Khaldun: a Man and Theoretician of Civilization], and Actualite d’Ibn Khaldun. In addition to his writings on Ibn Khaldun’s works, Cheddadi also wrote on other diverse issues pertaining to Islamic historiography and the cultural and political history of the Maghreb. This is exemplified by his books: Les Arabes et l’appropriation De L’histoire: Émergence et premiers développements de l’historiographie musulmane jusqu’au Il-VIIIe siècle [The Arabs and Appropriation of History: Emergence of Major Developments in Islamic Historiography]; La Littérature arabe médiévale [History of Medieval Arabic Literature] jointly with Andras Hamori, and Pensée grecque, culture arabe: Le mouvement de traduction Gréco-arabe á Bagdad et la société abbasside primitive [Greek Thought and Arab Culture: The translation Movement from Greek to Arabic in Baghdad During the Early Abbasid Era] jointly with Dimitri Gustas. He also translated a number of texts from English to Arabic.

Through his writings in Arabic, French, and English, Professor Cheddadi was able to address a wide international audience. His scholarship and erudition, especially with respect to Ibn Khaldun, has enriched our knowledge about one of humanity’s greatest thinkers and has made many of Cheddadi’s books indispensable references nationally and internationally for researchers and students of the Islamic concept of Imran.

Cheddadi’s contributions are evident in numerous publications on various aspects of the thought of Ibn Khaldun and particularly in his book: Ibn KhaldUn: L’homme et le théoricien de La civilization.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.