George Hourani

George Fadlo Hourani (June 3, 1913 – September 19, 1984) was a British philosopher, historian, and classicist. He is best known for his work in Islamic philosophy, which focused on classical Islamic rationalism and ethics.

Biography

George Hourani was born into a prosperous British family of Lebanese Christian extraction in Didsbury, Manchester. He was the fourth of six children, having three older sisters and two younger brothers. His brothers were Albert Hourani and Cecil Hourani.

George spent his early years studying Greek and Latin language and literature, winning successive scholarships at the Mill Hill School and Balliol College, Oxford, and developing an interest in philosophy and international affairs. A subsequent trip to the Near East influenced his decision to pursue a doctoral degree in Oriental Studies at Princeton University, where Philip Hitti would first suggest a focus on Islamic philosophy.

Upon completing his dissertation on 9th and 10th century Arab seafaring, Hourani secured a lecturing position at the Government Arab College in Jerusalem, Palestine, which he held until the end of the mandate in 1948. In 1950, Hourani was invited to join the newly founded Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, where he would reside until 1967. At Michigan, Hourani began to more seriously explore ethics and Islamic philosophy, contributing the definitive Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy and beginning to explore the Mu'tazilite ethics of Abd al-Jabbar.