Professor Abdulaziz Al-Douri
King Faisal Prize in Islamic Studies 1986 Laureate
Topic: "Studies Dealing with Islamic History"
The study of Islamic economy is beneficial to the present financial and economic activities and their development
Abdulaziz Al-Duri obtained his B.A. from London University in 1940, and his Ph.D. in Islamic History from the same university in 1942. Since then, he had been teaching Islamic history in Iraq and Jordan for more than half a century. During his tenure in Iraq, he became the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Baghdad University, President of the University and subsequently President of the Higher Council of Iraqi Universities. He was also the President of the Iraqi Association of Writers and Authors, and a visiting professor at the American University in Beirut and the School of African and Oriental Studies in London. He was a member of the Iraqi Academy of Science, the Royal Jordanian Academy for Islamic Civilization Research (Al Al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought), and the Council of Custodians of the Library of Alexandria; he was also an honorary member of the Jordanian Arabic language Academy and a corresponding member of the Arab Language Academies in Cairo and Damascus.
Professor Al-Duri was a prominent Arab scholar of Islamic history, especially Islamic economic history. He authored and co-authored around 20 books and numerous scholarly articles dealing with various economical, cultural, and historical aspects of the Islamic civilization. His erudition, originality, and clarity of thought gained him wide recognition throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds. Some of his keynote books, such as his illustrious book: The Economic History of Iraq During the 7th Century A.H., were translated into English, German, Turkish and other languages.
Professor Al-Duri’s distinguished contributions to Islamic economic history were recognized by a number of prestigious awards and honors. He was awarded both the Order of Independence (First Class) and the Distinguished Order of Education in Jordan, as well as an Honorary Doctorate degree from Halle-Wittenberg University in Germany, and the Iraqi Academy of Science prize.
This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.
- He received many prizes including:
- The Center of Islamic History, Arts, and Culture prize in 1988.
- The ALESCO prize in 2000.
- The Jordanian Order of Independence (First Class) in 2002.
- In 1999, a special symposium was organized in his honor by the Shuman Foundation.
- In 2000, professor Ihsan Abbas published a biography titled: Abdulaziz Al-Duri: A Human, a Historian, and a Thinker.
- Professor Abdulaziz Al-Duri passed away in Amman on November 19, 2010.