Arabian Expert Named A University Professor

Sir Hamilton A. R. Gibb of Oxford University, a world-famed authority on the Middle East, will join the faculty as the newest University Professor starting next July.

Gibb, who will also serve as the Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic, will take a large part in research and teaching in the Center of Middle Eastern Studies, President Pusey said yesterday.

"Professor Gibb is one of the very greatest living Arabists," William L. Langer '15, director of the Center, said last night. "Even a non-Harvard man would agree that his selection puts Harvard in the front rank of institutions in this field."

Colleague Praises Gibb

Gibb is an expert in history from pre-Islamic times to the present Middle East. His special field is the impact of the West on Arab society. "Sir Gibb knows the Near East intimately, including all the men thrown in prison during the recent turnovers of the governments there." William Thomson, professor of Arabic, emeritus, a friend and colleague commented yesterday.

"Gibb has spent extended periods in the Near East," Thomson continued. "He has contributed outstanding books to the field." These include "The Arab Conquests in Central Asia," "Mohammedanism," and the "The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades." He is also the editor of the completely revised edition of the "Encyclopedia of Islam," sponsored by UNESCO.

"Because Gibb is to well known by European and Near East scholars," Thomson added, "his very presence at Harvard will create great prestige for the University abroad. And he will make the Near Eastern department here superior to any in the country."

Gibb's foreign honors include the only European membership the Egyptian Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo.