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7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
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7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
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Georges
Chehata
Anawati, OP
1905-1994
Georges
Anawati, a
Dominican
priest,
was a
recog-
nized scholar in Islamic studies.
This
smallpamphlet
is
an
introduction
to
this
exceptional son
of
St.
Dominic. Father Stephen D.
Ryan,
OP,
prepared
this
work
for the
Vocations
Office of the Dominican
Province of
St.
Joseph
to help us appreciate
the
human
and scholarly
dimensions of
the Dominican
mission.
A
Reflection: The Man and
The Scholar
Pre
Georges C.
Anawati, OP
(1905-1994)
was
a
remarkable Do-
minican. One of his Dominican confreres described
his life
as
one
of
untiring
activity
and
generosity
of
response
to an exceptional voca-
tion.
Although
he was
well known
by members
of the international
scholarly community-when
he
died
special
meetings were oga-
nizedby Christian and Islamic scholars
in
Cairo,
Istanbul,
Paris and
Rome
to
celebraTe
his
life and
scholarship-Pre Anawati's
work
is
perhaps
less well
known than
it
might
be
by
members of
his own
religious
family. His life as
a
religious
of
the
Order
of
Preachers,
the
force and charm
of
his
personality,
and his
dedication
to serious
intellectual
endeavor
in
service
of the Church
are
not only of
intrin-
sic interest
in their
own
right,
but
they
also illustrate
in a
concrete
way
the
Dominican
conviction
that the
enthusiastic
pursuit
of
truth
is
essentialto the apostolic mission of the Friars Preachers.
Timothy
Radcliffe, OP, Master of
the
Order, stated,
in
his
remarks
at a
gath-
ering held at Santa Sabina
to
honor
Pre
Anawati,
l
wish to
stress
how completely our brother
fulfilled
one
of
the fundamental
aspects
of
our vocation
as
Friars Preachers: to relentlessly seek
the
truth,
with rigor, but
also
with an infectious enthusiasm.
Georges
Anawati, the
sixth of eight children, was
born
June 6,
1905 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Greek Orthodox
family
of
Syrian
origin.
At the age of
76 he
enTered
the
Roman Gatholic Church
(Latin
Rite),
a
decision
which caused
considerable
tension in his fam-
ily.In
1928, havihg taken a degree
in
chemistry in
France,
he
re-
turned
to
Egypt
to
work
with two of
his brothers in the family
phar-
macy and laboratory. During these
years
in Cairo he became
ac-
quainted
with a French
Dominican,
Pre Jaussen
(1871,-1962\,
an
Arabic
scholar
who
had opened
the Dominican house in Cairo in
7928.|n
his reading he was deeply
influenced
by
the writings of the
Dominican theologian
Pre
Sertillanges
(1863-1948).
In
1,934, at
the
age o
29, he
enTered
the
Dominican Order in
France
and completed
his
philosophical
and theological studies at
the Dominican
studium
known as the
Saulchoir.
The Dominicans in
over Emblem' Seal of the Institut Dominicain d'tudes
Orientales
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
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France
at
that
Time
were
experiencing
a
great
intellectual renais-
sance
and Pre
M.-D. Chenu
(1395-1990)
had recently been
made
regent of
studies
at
the
Saulchoir.
It was
Chenu
who was
instrumen-
talin
the
creation
of
the /nsfif
ut
Dominicain
d'Etudes
Orientales
(IDEO)
in Cairo which
Anawati would direct
from 7953-1984.1n 1939,
the
year
he
was ordained
to the
priesthood,
Pre
Anawati
published
his first
scholarly
article, which
was
entitled: Philosophie
arabe,
(published
in
a volume
on mediaeval
philosophy
edited
by
Chenu).
The title reflects one of
the
areas
of
specialization
to which Anawati
would devote
himself.
Anawati spent most of the war
years
in
North
Africa, first in
Algeria completing
an
advanced
degree
in
Arabic
and
then, from
1944
on,
in
Egypt. In
Algeria
he made
many
close
ties
with
Muslim
scholars and also
with
members of the religious communities
which
took their
inspiration from
Charles de
Foucauld,
'the
Hermit
of
the
Sahara.'
He
was
deeply
influenced by
their
spirituality
and
enjoyed
visiting
the
Little
Sisters
of
Jesus
in
Rome,
Washington,
and else-
where.
ln 1944
he arrived
in Cairo and set
to
work
transforming
the
Dominican
house
there
from an
annex
of
the cole Biblique in Jerusa-
lem, which
it
had
been
since
1928,
to
an
independent institution
devoted
to advanced
research in Islam and
Arabic
studies
(IDEO).
During these early
years in Cairo Anawati
also
completed
his
gradu-
ate studies,
taking
a
Ph,D.
from
the Institute of
Medival Studies of
the University
of
Montreal
(1948-1950).
While
most
of
his
academic
life
was centered on
teaching
and
research at
IDEO, Pre
Anawati travelled
frequent not
only
to teach
in
Europe and
the
United
States,
but
also
to
attend
scholarly
meet-
ings
of
the
various
Medivalist and
Orientalist
societies
to which he
belonged. In
Cairo,
when celebrating the community
mass,
it
is said
that
Pre
Anawati would
place
a
list
of
some 320
names on the altar,
many undoubtedly
the
names of
the
scholars
of
allfaiths
with whom
he had formed
lasting
friendships.
Pre
Anawati
was
passionate
about the
Dominican vocation. His
brothers
in Cairo describe
him
as a
man
of
prayer
who
was
present
faithfully
at
choraloffice,
meals, and
recreation.
Regis
Morelon, OP
4
noted:
Throughout
his
whole life, his
passion
for
the
Order of
Preach-
ers never
waned. This
passion
for the Dominican
life and
his frater-
nal charity is evident
in
a
letter
to
his former teacher, Pre Chenu,
when the
latter was condemned by
Rome in February
on
7942.
Anawati wrote
to
Chenu:
I,
with
perhaps
too
great
a
delay, desire in
turn
to
tellyou
(but
is it indeed necessary
to
tell
you?) how
much
I
remain united
with
you
in
the ordealwhich
has afflicted
you-and
which has
afflicted
us along
with
you.
The
debt
I
personally
owe
you
I
sense
more
and
more every day, when, having contact with
other
Orders,
I
verify
by
experience
what
you
have
taught
us-how
beautiful and
how urgent our Dominican vocation
is.
Your
message perdures,
whatever be
the human contingen-
cies
of the moment....(Letter of April
23,7942).
It
is
characteristic
of the Dominican vision of
the
intellectual life
that before
all
else,
our
study should
aim principally
and
ardently
at
this that we might be able to be usefulto
the
souls of
our neighbors.
(Primitive
Constitutions, Prologue; LCO
77\.
Pre
Anawati's
dedica-
tion to
the
Christianlslamic
dialogue
grew
out
of his
deep
desire
to
be
of use
to
his
neighbor
and
to
his native
land.
From
his
own
expe-
rience as an
Arab
Christian
in
Egypt
he
well
knew that the
political
future
of
Egypt depended
on the
mutual
respect
of
its Muslim
and
Christian citizens.
Pre
Anawati
served
this end
with
the
totality of
his
life,
but
particularly
with
his scholarship. Although his research
was often
technical
and
highly
specialized
(one
of
his
books
was
entitled History
of
Drugs
and
Medicines
in
Antquity and
the
Middle
Age.s
[1959,
in Arabicl),
it
was
his
deep
learning that
enabled
him
to
be
so
effective
in
building
bridges
between
cultures
and
peoples
of different faiths.
Five
years
ago a
memorial volume was
published
by
Anawati's
confreres
in Cairo
(Le
Pre G. C. Anawoti,
O.P.,
[1905-1994]
Parcours
d'une
uie.
Cairo:
Institut Dominicain
d'tudes
Orientales,
7996).
One of
the
articles
collected
in
that
volume was
written
by
Richard Frank of The Catholic University of
America, a
close
friend
of Anawati and
himself
an eminent
Arabist
and
past president
of
the
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
4/8
American Oriental
Society. That article, which
was
originally
pub-
lished in
the
lVeurslef
ter
ot'
the
American Oriental
Society, is re-
printed
here with
Professor Frank's
permission.
It
beautifully
cap-
tures
the importance and lasting significance
of
Pre
Anawati's
re-
markable Dominican vocation.
Stephen
D.
Ryan,
OP
Dominican House
of
Studies
Washington,
DC
Georges Chehata
Anawati,
OP
Born
Family:
Age
16:
Studies:
7934
7939
1948-50
1953-1984
1963
1978
1982
1984
1990
Died
June 6, 1905,
Alexandria,
Egypt
Greek
Orthodox
family
of
Syrran origrn
receivedinto
the Roman Catholic Church
(Latin
Rite)
University
of
St. Joseph, Beirut
(Pharmacology)
University
of Lyon,
France
(Chemistry)
Entered the
Dominican
Order, studied
at the Saulchoir
Ordained
to the Priesthood
Ph.D. from
the
Medival
Institute,
Univers
of
Montreal
Director
of
the
Insit
ut
Dominicain
d'tudes
Orientales
(IDEO)
Second
Vatican Council,
Secretariat for the Unity of Christians
Doctorate Honoris
Couso
from
the University
of
Louvarn
Named
to the Pontifical Council
for
Culture by Pope
John
Paul II
Doctorate Honoris
Causs
from The Catholic Universi of America
Named
honorary member of the Socit
Asiatque
(Pans)
January 28,1994, Cairo,
Egypt
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
5/8
A Memoriam
Pre
Anawati
died
in
his
room
at
the
Institut
Dominicain
d'tudes
Orientales du Caire
on
January
28th,
7994, the
feast of
St.
Thomas
Aquinas.
One
token
of
the universal es-
teem
in
which he
was
held
is
that
the
notice of his death,
together
with
a
photograph,
appeared on
the front
page
of
al-Ahrsm
the following day,
while
telegrams of condolence
were
sent,
by President Mou-
barak, Kamal
Hilmi,
president
of
the
Egyptian
parliament,
and
Ismet
Abd
al-Magid, Secretary
General of
the
Arab
League.
Many members
of
the
Society
will
have
known
Pre
Anawati
personally;
numerous others
will
know him
for
some
or for many of
the rich
diversity
of
his
more than 250 contributions
to oriental
studies,
most
likely
perhaps
for
his Mu'allafat
lbn
Sns: Essqi de
bibliographie
aucnienne
(Cairo,
1950),
his
edition of
Avicenna's
Ilahiyyat
al-Shifa'
(Cairo,1960)and
its translation,
L a mtaphysique
du
Shifa',
introduction,
traduction et commentaire
(2
uols., Paris
797
8, 7985) or
his Etudes
de
philosophie
musulmone
(Paris,
797
4],,
a
collection of
studies covering the
general
character of Muslim
philosophy,
the transmission
of
the
Neoplatonic
tradition in
Islam,
Avicenna,
'Abd
al-Jabbar,
and
Fakhruddin al-Razi,
and
for
the
two
works
which
he
published
in collaboration
with
Louis GardeT,Intro'
duction
la thologie
musulmone
(Paris,
1948,
translated
into
Arabic by
F. Jabre and
S.
Salih,
3
vols.,
Beyrou|I',1967-69) and
Lo
mystque
musulmane,
ospects
et tendances:
Exprences
et
tech-
nques
(Paris,
1961) and
for
the annual survey of classical
and
8
Abna Anawati
medieval
Arabic texts
published
in
Egypt,
which
he
prepared
for
MIDEO
from
1954
until
quite
recently, when the task was taken over
by others.
He
also
wrote a number of works in
Arabic,
among
Them
Tarkh
al-saydala
wal-qaqr
f-t-ahd
al-qadm wal-sr al-wast
(The
His-
tory
of Drugs and
Medicines in Antiquity and the
Middle
ages,
Cairo,
1959)
and
al-Mashiyya
wal-hadara
al-rabiyya
(Christianity
and
Arab
Culture,
Cairo,
79921.
There
is
at
present
no
complete bibli-
ography
of Pre
Anawati's
publications.
That
given
in
the
Festschrift
presented
to
him
and to Louis Gardet
(Recherches
d'lslamologie,
Bibliothque
philosophique
de Louvain 26,
Louvain
I976)
gives
some 230
items;
a
complete list is being
prepared
by his colleagues
of
the IDEO and should appear shortly.
Born in Alexandria,
Pre Anawati studied
pharmacy
at
the
Universit
St. Joseph
in Beirut
and
then
chemistry
at
the
University of Lyon,
after which
he returned to
Alexandria
in
7929
where
he worked in the
fami
laboratory.
He
had a
strong interest
in
philosophy
and
theo-
logy,
however,
and,
having
studied the
works of
Aristotle
and
Aquinas,
was
particularly
impressed
with
the
writing
of
A.D.
Sertillanges
and J. Mariiain,
which
were to
mark much
of
his
subsequent
thought
and
writing.
Already in
the
early
thirties he
had entered
into
cor-
respondance with
Louis Massignon,
who subsequently
was to be-
come a
very
close
friend. A short
time
later, encouraged by
Yusuf
Karam,
then Professor of Philosophy
atthe
Egyptian
University, Pre
Anawati
entered
the Dominican Order
in 1934, taking
the
religious
name
Marie-Marcel.
He studied
philosophy
and
theology
at
the
Saulchoir, the Studium
of
the Dominican Province of
France,
which
at the time
was
located
in
Belgium.
He
was
ordained
in 1939
and
subsequently
,in7947,completed
his
thse
de
lectorat at
Saint-Albain
Leysse
in
Savoy
which entitled him
to teach
philosophy
and
theology
as
a
member
of
Dominican
faculties.
Later the
same
year,
unable
to return to occupied France, he
went
to Algiers
where
he
took
his licentiate
in
Arabic
in 1943 and
was
appointed
by
Charles
Kuentz as Egyptian
Attach of
the Institui
Franais
d'Archologie
for
Algiers.
He
remainedThere
untilAugust
1944.
During his Algierian stay
he formed
close and enduring
ties
with
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
6/8
a
number
of
oriental
scholars,
among
them
Robert
Brunschvig,
Marius
Canard,
Georges Marcais,
Henri
Prs,
Jean Cantineau, and
variste
Lvi-Provenal,
and
with others then working in
Morocco,
such as
G. S. Colin,
H. P. J. Renaud,
and Louis
Brunot. Most
im-
portant,
however,
was
his
close association with Louis Gardet, whose
acquaintance he
had
first
made some
time
earlier
at the
Saulchoir.
Gardet,
a
member
of
the
Petits
Frres
de
Jsus
(with
the
religious
name, Petit
Frre
Andr-Marie),
resided
in the Dominican
house
in
Algiers
during
1943 and
7944
and
it
was there
that
Pre Anawati's
long
career
of
research
and
publication
on
Muslim
philosophy,
theology,
and mysticism began
simultaneously
with
his long continu-
ing collaboration with
Gardet.
So
too,
in
the early
stages
of
his
career,
he established, during
a
brief
stay in Jerusalem in 1945-46, close
contactswith
scholars
such as
D.
H.
Baneth and S. Pines, whose
work
he especially
admired.
Following
his
initial
period
of
travel,
Pre Anawati settled in the
Dominican
house in Abbassiya,
where,
through
his association
with
Charles Kuentz and Youssef Karam, he
formed
close ties
with
Fuad
Sayyid, Ahmad
Amin,
Ibrahim Madkour,
Mahmoud
Khodeiri,
and
with Taha Husayn
who, with his
wife
Suzanne, became and
remained
his
very
close friends.
The Dominican residence
in
Abbassiyawas originallyestablished by
Pre
Antonin
Jaussen in 1928
as a
kind
of adjunct to the cole
Biblique
of Jerusalem.
Already
in the
mid-thirties,
however,
the
then
Rector
of
the Saulchoir,
Pre M.-D. Chenu
(d.
1990), one
of
the
foremost theologians of the
century, keenly
aware of
the
religious,
cultural, and historical importance
of
Islam,
both in
itself
and
for
its
profound
influence
on the
intellectual development
of
Western
Europe,
urged
the formation
of
a center
for the
study
of
Islam
and
especially
of
its
philosophical,
theological,
and religious thought. So
it was
that
immediately
after the
war a
small research
group
was
formed
consisting
of
Pres
Anawati,
Jacques
Jomier,
and Serge de
Laugier
de Beaurecueil
(it
was he
who conducted the funeralservices
for Marie
Bernand last
year
in
Montrouge), who
were
joined
not long
afterwards by Pre Dominique Boilot
and eventually
by a
number
of
others. The Institut Dominicain
d'tudes Orientales
(IDEO)was
offi-
10
cially inaugurated
in 1953
with
Pre
Anawatias
director,
a
position
he
retained
until
1984.
The
first issue
of
MIDEO
(Mlanges
de
I'lnstitut
Dominicain d'tudes
Orientales) appeared the
following
year.
Pre Anawatiserved as
Professor of Pharmacy at
the
University
of
Alexandria from
1955 and was
a visiting
professor
on more
than
one
occasion at
the Universities
of
Ottawa, Montreal, and Louvain,
and
at regular intervals for a
number of
years
at
the
University
of
California
at
Los
Angeles. He
was
for
many
years
an honorary member of the
American OrientalSociety and was a
member
of
the Institut
d'gypte
and a
knight of the
Lgion
d'Honneur. He received honorary doc-
torates
at
the
Catholic
University of
Louvain and the
Catholic
University of America and was
awarded
the medal of the International
Society
for
the
Study
of Medieval
Philosophy at
its
meeting
of
IOOZ
in Ottawa.
To
some
it
came at
times to seem that he was continually
on the move,
lecturing,
attending
meetings and
colloquia, or
serving
on
one
or another commission,
so
much
so, indeed,
thai
one
friend
suggested
that
he
returned to
Egypt
only
occasionally
in
order to
renew
his
passport.
Through all of
these many
activities
and
preoccupations,
however,
his
life never lost
its integral focus on three things: his religious life as
a friar of the
Dominican
Order,
the study of the
history
of
philosophy
and
theology,
and
the
progress
of
the
Muslim-Christian
dialogue.
The
week before his
death-and
despite
the
great
difficulty he had in
getting
about,
even
in
his wheel chair-he left the
house
to attend
a
meeting
of
al-lkha' al-dini, a
religious association made
up of
in-
tellectuals
of different
faiths who meet
once
a
month for
discussion.
The IDEO, located on
Shari'Masna'al-Tarabish
(Tarboush
Factory
Street)-and
f
or
this
one
of
the
brethren has
dubbed it la tarbouchire-
is a very special
place
for
all
those
who have
worked there
or have
been associated
with
it. Though
perpetually
short
of
funds,
it
houses
a
truly
outstanding library
for the study of the intellectual and religious
history
of
Islam, consisting
presently
of
some eighty
thousand
vol-
umes,
not counting
journals,
assembled
through the
constant eforts
of Pre
Anawati, in
large
part
by
virtue of
his contacts
with
a
host of
people,
scholars,
writers, diplomats, officials,
publishers,
and busi-
11
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
7/8
nessmen and his
close
personal
relationship with
a
number of book
dealers, both
in
Egypt
and
abroad.
Because of
Pre
Anawati's
long
association
with Louis Gardet and with
the
Petits Frres, Gardet's
library
has
now
been
integrated
into that of the Institute.
It contains
also,
we
might note,
a
rich
fund
of materials concerning
popular
sufism bequeathed
by
Dr.
Ernst
Bannerth, an Austrian
priest
and
orientalist
who, not
long after he
had come
to
Cairo
to
study
sufi
confraternities, requested and
was
granted
residence at
the Institute
where
he
lived
until his
deathin7976;
stories are
stilltold
of
Bannerth
and of his regular
participation
in the
dhikr
of
various
groups
who
were
never
quite
sure
whether
he was a Muslim
or
not.
The
Institute
with its
resident Dominican
community
is
a
very
special
place,
however, not
because
of its
library-for
even if
not
numerous,
such are to
be
found elsewhere-but
because it is
endowed
with a
unique
atmosphere
of openness,
congeniality and human
warmth that
are due
in
great
part,
if not
entirely, to the spirit of Pre
Anawati, who
was indeed
a
very
special
kind of
individual (for
whom
else of
his wandering
colleagues
did
Franz Rosenthal
ever
prepare
dinner?). It
was because of this unique atmosphere that
as Norman
Daniel
(d.
7992),
for
many
years
the Director
of the British Council,
was
contemplating retirement
from the
cultural
office of
the Embassy
in Cairo,
his
wife
Ruth turned
to
Pre
Anawati
as the three of them
were
dining one evening-they were
very
close friends-and
asked,
hopefully, though
only half
seriously
because the
request
seemed
plainly
preposterous,
if they might
build a house
on
the Dominican
property ( dans
le
jardin
du
couvent ). Later, having
considered
the
matter
and consulted
the
community-the
question
had hardly been
expected-Abna was happy to
agree
and
the
Daniels moved
into
their
house in 1979.
It
was
characteristic that
Pre Anawati's
many travels
and
varied
activities
resulted
not in the
establishment
of
ordinary
academic
contacts
and
professional
connections
with their
sometimes
ex-
changes
of information
and
favors, but
in
the
formation
of real
and
enduring
bonds of affection which were
cherished and maintained.
For
those
who
knew
him, both for his close friends,
a significant
number
of whom were neither
scholars
nor
intellectuals,
and
for the
1.2
many
colleagues
who
had
opportunities, frequent
or
infrequent,
to
share
his
company,
Abna Anawati was
far more than an
affable
scholar
of
international
renown. His
personality
was marked by
extra-
ordinary
warmth
and
generosity
and
his
characteristically
Egyptian
love of verbal exchange,
enlivened by
a
teasing,
sometimes
almost
taunting dialectic
(described
by one
friend
as
de
tendance auicnienne
anawatisante)
made his presence
a
delight for
all
save
the incurably
stuffy
and self-righteous,
whom
he occasionally
left
a
bit
perplexed,
as they did
him. This
love
of
laughter and conversation
serious and
semlserious
and
downright
playful-of
talk
and
stories and of
disputational
sport-he
exercised
as spontaneously and
joyfully
at
bus-stops
and
on
crowded buses with
the
ordinary
citizens and
laborers
of
Cairo
or Paris as with
learned
professors,
sheikhs,
and
dignitaries at
formal
gatherings
or
with
his
Dominican
confreres
at
table.
Pre
Anawati's
religious
faith
was
that of traditional
Catholicism
and his theological and philosophical
formation
firmly
rooted
in
a
traditionalThomism. Inevitably, some of his deeply
held
convictions
and opinions
were
not
fully
shared
by
all his varied
friends
and
colleagues or
aquaintances.
Conflict and confrontation, however,
were altogether
alien
to
his
character
and disposition,
for which
mutual
respect and
the maintenance of
friendship wee
ever
upper-
most.
Divergences
of views, when
they
surfaced,
were noted
but
invariably
blunted
or turned
aside;
often
by
some humorous
remark.
Pre Anawati's
room,
like
the man himself,
gave
an
extraordinary
impression. Besides
the seeming chaos of books and
boxes
of
prints
and middens of papers that
seemed
to fill most
of
the
space,
there was
a
long bench
with shelves
supporting
hundreds of small
jars
and
bottles filled
with
an
assortment
of
chemicals and a bunsen
burner,
often lit as, for
a brief
respite
from
more
arduous
tasks, he would
undertake
some simple experiment,
following
perhaps
something
that
he
had
seen
in one or
another
text. In the evening, illumined only
by
the small lamp on his desk,
the
room had
the
look
of
an alchemist's
shop, and
so
it
was
frequently described by
the residents of the house.
And
there he would sit, all day
long
at his work, taking
time
off
for
the
community
recitation of
the
office, meals and
the
brief
recreation
13
7/27/2019 Georges Chehata Anawati OP-libre
8/8
at
noon-coffee
and talk
with
residents and
guests-
followed
by a
short
siesta.
In the
evening
he
could be
seen
occasionally fighting
sleep about 10:30,
but soon
the
busy
sound of
his typewriter
could be
heard untilabout
2 AM
when
he
would finally retire, to rise
again at
six
in the
morning,
say
mass
at
a
local convent and
return
once again
to
his
desk.
But his
door was
never
closed.
However
busy,
Pre
Anawati
was
always
ready,
at
whatever hour,
day
or
night,
to
offer
his
help to
any
onewho
sought
it-whethera
memberof the
community,
a
visiting
scholar, a
student
or
a
casual
visitor
to
the
library-with
whatever
problem
or
question,
however trivial
it might
be. More
than
once he
arranged
to interrupt the routine
of
his work
several times
a
week over the course
of
an
entire
semester
to
read
philosophicaltexts
with
younger
scholars or with students who had
come
to Cairo to
do
research or to
study. Finally, at the
age
of 88, anxious to complete
what he
described
as his
grande
oeuure, entitled
Le Dieu Un
(sl-TaL))hid):
Existence,
Attributs
ef
lVoms,
Cration,
he was
per-
suaded
to
exchange his
ancient typewriter for
a
word
processor and
in the last
letter
I received
from
him,
shortly
beore
his death, he
was
still
jovially
complaining
of
the
refractoriness
of
the
machine and
lauding
the
patience
of his
confreres
who
were helping
him
to tame
it.
II tait toujours gal
lui-mme.
Pre
Anawati's
death tokens not merely the
passing
of a
generation
of
great
scholars but, in
a real sense,
that
of the
pioneer period
of the
modern
study
of
Muslim
philosophy
and
theology.
Richard
M.
Frank
Catholic
University of America
Washington DC
Reprinted,
with
permission,
from:
The
Newsletter
ot' the
American Oriental
Society,
Number
77
(1994)
pp.
1-6.
74
Selected
Bibliography
of
Fr.
Anawati's Life
items
relating
to
and
Work
Anawati, G.C.
Georges
C.
Anawati
(par
lui-mme),
Philosophes
critiques
d'eux-mmes,
ed.
by
A.
Mercier and
M.Svilar, vol.14,
pp.7-57.
Berlin:
Peter
Lang,
1990.
Arnaldez, R. and S.
van RieT. Recherches
d'Islamologie, Recueil
d'articles oft'ert
Georges C.
Anawat
et
Lois
Gardet
par
leurs
collgues et
amis. Louvain: Peeters, 1977.
van Ess, Josef.
Georges
Chehata
Anawati,
O.P.
(1905-1994),
Zetschrif
t
der
Deutschen
Morgenl ndischen
Gesellschat't
746
(7996)
262-268.
Frank, Richard.
Georges
Chehata
Anawati
(1905-1994),
Newsletter
ot' the
American Oriental
Socety 77
(1994)
7-6.
Morelon,
Rgis. Le Pre G.C.
Anawati,
O.P.,
(1905'1994)
Parcours
d'une uie.
Cairo: Institut
Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales,
1996.
Note:
Pre Anawati's bibliography
includes 31 books
(12
of
which he
wrote
in
collaboration
with another
author)and
over
250
articles.
Among
his
better
known
works are: lntroduction la
thologie musulmane
(7948,
in
collaboration
with Louis Gardet), the
Frenh
translation
of
Avicenna's
Metaphyscs
(1978-1985),
Hstory
of
Drugs and Medi-
cines
(\959, in
Arabic),
Chrstanty
and
Arab
Culture
(7992, in
Arabic).
15