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Maxime Rodinson (1915–2004)

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23+ Works 775 Members 6 Reviews

About the Author

Maxime Rodinson (1915-2004) was a French Marxist historian, sociologist and a professor at the renowned Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris
Image credit: Maxime Rodinson en 1970

Works by Maxime Rodinson

Associated Works

The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1967) — Preface, some editions — 540 copies
Islam and the Russian Empire: Reform and Revolution in Central Asia (1988) — Preface, some editions — 7 copies
Réforme et révolution chez les musulmans de l'Empire russe (1981) — Preface, some editions — 2 copies

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Rodinson, Maxime
Legal name
Rodinson, Maxime
Birthdate
1915-01-26
Date of death
2004-05-23
Gender
male
Nationality
France
Country (for map)
France
Birthplace
Paris, France
Place of death
Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Cause of death
Naturelle (Vieillesse)
Education
Faculté de Paris (Doctorat d'état, Histoire, Dossier de travaux, 19 70)
Ecole pratique des hautes études, EPHE, Paris, France (Doctorat, Histoire, 19 50)
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, INALCO Diplôme, 19 32 | 19 36)
Occupations
Professeur (Histoire)
Historien (Orient, Islam)
Orientaliste
essayist
sociologist
linguist (show all 7)
autobiographer
Organizations
Ecole pratique des hautes études (Professeur, Directeur d'études, 19 55 | 19 98)
Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (Collaborateur, 19 48 | 19 55)
Ecole des lettres, Beyrouth, Liban (Enseignant, 19 47 | 19 48)
Service des antiquités à Beyrouth (Collaborateur, 19 40 | 19 47)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Boursier, 19 37)
Parti communiste français (Membre, Exclusion, 19 37 | 19 58)
Awards and honors
Prix de l'Union rationaliste, (1991)
Short biography
Maxime Rodinson was born in Paris to Russian-Polish Jewish immigrants who had arrived in France at the end of the 19th century fleeing from pogroms. His father was a clothing trader who set up a business in the Marais district and tried to organize and unionize other working-class immigrants. Both his parents were members of the Communist Party. Rodinson left school at age 14 to help support the family working as an errand boy, but continued to study with borrowed books and friendly teachers. He taught himself Esperanto, English, Greek, and Latin.

In 1932, at age 17, because of a rule that allowed persons without the baccalauréat to take the competitive entrance examination, Rodinson won admittance to the prestigious Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations) and studied Arabic, Hebrew, and Turkish, among others. At the start of World War II in 1940, he was mobilized into the French army and sent to Syria. He worked with the Archaeological Mission of Free France in Beirut, Lebanon, then taught at the École des lettres there.

His parents died in 1943 while being deported to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. In 1948, back in Paris, Rodinson became head of the "Islam" section of the Bibliothèque nationale (National Library). In 1950, he earned a doctorate in history at the Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE) and was appointed director of studies there in 1955. He became professor of classical Ethiopian and South Arabian four years later, and remained in that position until his retirement in 1986. Prof. Rodinson was a member of the French Communist Party from 1937 until he was expelled in 1958 for his independent thinking. He was the author of monumental works devoted to the Islamic world and the Middle East, but also enjoyed researching cookbooks and the influences of Arab cuisine on European medieval cuisine. His publications included hundreds of scholarly articles, some 20 books, and several collections of essays. His autobiography, Souvenirs d'un marginal, appeared posthumously in 2005.

Members

Reviews

Rodinson gives an honest and accurate introduction to the issues of the Arab world that is as salient today as it was when it was first published. While many of the specifics have changed, Rodinson sets out the historical and cultural characteristics that shape Arab society. A must read for those interested in Orientalism or Western scholarship on the Arab world.
 
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lavieboheme | Jun 18, 2009 |
Readers of Claudia Roden's masterworks have long been aware of the continuities in Middle Eastern cookery, others have been tantalized by the influence of Islamic cooking on the medieval West, all will rejoice in this new gathering of papers and documents relating to medieval Arab food and cookery. The French scholar, Maxime Rodinson's contributions are legendary, yet have only been seen in translation in Petits Propos Culinaires. We include those already published there, together with the text of his longest paper, 'Recherches sur les documents Arabes relatifs a la cuisine', translated by Barbara Yeomans. The American scholar Charles Perry has been entertaining participants at the Oxford Symposium with regular gleanings from his researches into medieval Arab cookery, and several of his papers are gathered here, together with a new study of fish recipes, and other items previously published in PPC. Subjects include grain foods of the early Turks, rotted condiments, cooking pots, and Kitab al-Tibakhah, a 15th-century cookery book. English study of the subject was first encouraged by Professor Arberry's translation of the 13th-century cookery book Kitab al-Tabikh, published in 1939 in the periodical Islamic Culture. Readers will be pleased to have this more accessible copy, together with an introductory note and revision by Charles Perry. The book is ornamented by a foreword from Claudia Rosen.… (more)
 
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reginaromsey | Jul 1, 2006 |
 
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hpryor | Aug 8, 2021 |

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A. J. Arberry Translator
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György Markus Contributor
Abdallah Laroui Contributor
Eric J. Hobsbawn Contributor
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V.A. Vinogradov Contributor
H. M. A. Onitiri Contributor
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Costin Murgescu Contributor
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Timur Timofeev Contributor
Evgueni Kamenov Contributor
Robert C. Tuscker Contributor
A. Mileikovsky Contributor
Andras Hegedüs Contributor
V. I. Činkaruk Contributor
A. M. Rumianzev Contributor
Y. A. Zamochkin Contributor
Mihailo Marković Contributor
Ignacy Sachs Contributor
Shigeto Tsuru Contributor
Alfred Sauvy Contributor
Herbert Marcuse Contributor
Jürgen Habermas Contributor
Zygmunt Bauman Contributor
Raymond Aron Contributor
Joan Robinson Contributor
Anatol Rapoport Contributor
Ágnes Heller Contributor
Celso Furtado Contributor
Roger Garaudy Contributor
Charles Frankel Contributor
Adam Schaff Contributor
Anouar Abdel-Malek Contributor
Franco Ferrarotti Contributor
Jindrich Zeleny Contributor
Michal Kalecki Contributor
Cesare Luporini Contributor
Jean Hippolite Contributor
Anne Carter Translator
Robert Irwin Afterword
baffielena Translator

Statistics

Works
23
Also by
4
Members
775
Popularity
#32,829
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
6
ISBNs
89
Languages
11

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