Documents for "Historians, Miscellaneous: Biographies":

• Abu al-Fida 1273-1331, Arab historian, b. Damascus. He fought against the Christians in the last period of the Crusades and later became (1310) governor of Hama in Syria. He was a patron of learning and wrote...

• Acosta, Joaquín 1800-1852, Colombian historian and scientist. He served under Simón Bolívar in the revolution against Spanish rule and held various political positions in Colombia. He wrote about many aspects of...

• Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Barmaki al-Irbili ash-Shafii see Ibn Khalikan.

• Alamán, Lucas 1792-1853, Mexican historian and statesman. As deputy to the Spanish Cortes, he failed to win a hearing for the insurgents in Mexico. Returning to Mexico, he held several public offices and was...

• Arciniegas, Germán 1900-1999, Colombian historian and diplomat. A leading Latin American intellectual, he gained prominence as a journalist and publisher. A critic of the military and of dictators, he lived in exile...

• Baladhuri, al- d. c.892, Arab historian. One of the most important Arab historians, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al-Mutawakkil. He traveled in Syria...

• Benjamin of Tudela d.1173, rabbi considered the first European to approach the borders of China, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled (1159-73) through Italy, Greece, Palestine, Persia, the western borders of China, Egypt,...

• Clavijero, Francisco Javier 1731-87, Mexican scholar and historian. A Jesuit, he taught in Mexico until the expulsion of the order (1767). From his refuge in Italy he wrote several works, the most important being The History...

• Evagrius Scholasticus c.536-c.600, Syrian ecclesiastical historian, a prominent, honored lawyer in Antioch and Constantinople. His Ecclesiastical History (431-594), written in excellent Greek, is an authentic source for...

• Ferishta see Firishta.

• Firishta or Ferishta , c.1560-c.1620, Indian Muslim historian. His given name was Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah. Under the patronage of the shah of Bijapur, he wrote a history of the Muslims in India from the 10th cent. His...

• Garcilaso de la Vega 1539-1616, Peruvian historian; son of the Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and an Incan princess and therefore called the Inca. He grew up in Peru during the turbulent...

• Ibn Khaldun 1332-1406, Arab historian, b. Tunis. He held various offices under the rulers of Tunis and Morocco and served (1363) as ambassador of the Moorish king of Granada to Peter the Cruel of Castile. In...

• Ibn Khalikan or Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Barmaki al-Irbili ash-Shafii, 1211-82, Arabic biographer, b. in Erbil, Iraq. Ibn Khallikan lived and served as a judge and scholar in Mamluk Egypt and Syria. His main work,...

• Jacobs, Joseph 1854-1916, Jewish writer, historian, and folklorist, b. Australia. He lived in England until 1900, when he went to the United States to edit a revision of The Jewish Encyclopedia. He was later a teacher...

• López, Vicente Fidel 1815-1903, Argentine historian, journalist, and politician; son of Vicente López y Planes. A member of the group that opposed the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas, he sought refuge in Chile (1840-52), where he founded a political review and aided the educational schemes of Domingo...

• Masudi, Abd al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn d. 956, Arab historian, geographer, and philosopher, b. Baghdad. He traveled in Spain, Russia, India, Sri Lanka, and China and spent his last years in Syria and Egypt. His Muruj adh-Dhahab [meadows of gold], an epitome of a longer history of the world from creation to AD 947, is a compilation of his travel observations and studies. It embraces social and literary history, discussions...

• Means, Philip Ainsworth 1892-1944, American historian and archaeologist, b. Boston. An assistant on a Yale expedition to Peru (1914-15), he was later (1920-21) director of the National Museum of Archaeology at Lima, Peru...

• Medina, José Toribio 1852-1930, Chilean scholar. He traveled widely in Latin America, Europe, and the United States, collecting documents relevant to Latin American history. His numerous works include a history of...

• Morgan, Edmund Sears 1916-, U.S. historian, b. Minneapolis. After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1942, he taught at the Univ. of Chicago (1945-46) and at Brown (1946-55) before becoming (1955) professor of history...

• Morison, Samuel Eliot 1887-1976, American historian, b. Boston. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912 and began teaching history there in 1915, becoming full professor in 1925 and Jonathan Trumbull professor of...

• Morris, Richard Brandon 1904-89, American historian, b. New York City. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1930, taught (1927-49) at the College of the City of New York, became a professor at Columbia in 1949, and was...

• Morse, John Torrey 1840-1937, American lawyer and biographer, b. Boston. Admitted to the bar in 1862, he practiced law in Boston until 1880, when he turned all his attention to writing. With Henry Cabot Lodge he was...

• Motley, John Lothrop 1814-77, American historian and diplomat, b. Dorchester, Mass. Author of two novels concerning Thomas Morton (1839 and 1849), as well as a number of articles for the North American Review. Motley's study of the history of the Netherlands resulted in The Rise of the Dutch Republic (3 vol., 1856), long a standard work and a popular success, and History of the United Netherlands (4 vol., 1860-67). His last work, The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, appeared in 1874. Motley had spent a short period in 1841 as secretary of the U.S. legation at St. Petersburg and later was minister to Austria (1861-67). President Grant appointed him minister to...

• Munro, Wilfred Harold 1849-1934, American historian and educator, b. Bristol, R.I.; brother of Dana Carleton Munro. From 1870 to 1871 he was a master at De Veaux College, Niagara Falls, N.Y., where he later (1881-89)...

• Myers, Gustavus 1872-1942, American historian, b. Trenton, N.J. He worked on a number of newspapers and magazines in New York City, joined the Populist party and the Social Reform Club, and was a member (1907-12)...

• Nevins, Allan 1890-1971, American historian, b. Camp Point, Ill. After studying at the Univ. of Illinois, he followed a career in journalism until 1927. Teaching at Columbia from 1928, he became a full professor...

• Nicolay, John George 1832-1901, biographer of Lincoln, b. Bavaria. In 1837 he was brought to the United States, and his family settled in Pike co., Ill. He worked on the Pittsfield, Ill., Free Press and was its editor and owner from 1854 to 1856. In 1860 he and his close friend, John Hay, became private secretaries to Abraham Lincoln and continued as such during his presidency. In 1890 Nicolay...

• Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson 1868-1936, American historian, b. Chester co., Pa. He studied abroad and then worked on various Philadelphia newspapers. He edited the Manufacturer (1896-1900) and the "American Crisis Biographies," and from 1915 to 1921 he was secretary of the Pennsylvania State Board of Motion Picture Censors. Besides such books on Philadelphia history, his works include biographies of Robert Morris (1902)...

• Osgood, Herbert Levi 1855-1918, American historian, b. Canton, Maine. He taught at Worcester Academy (1877-79) and Brooklyn High School (1883-89). From 1890 to 1896 he was adjunct professor and, after 1896, professor...

• Palma, Ricardo 1833-1919, Peruvian scholar and author. Palma abandoned an active early career as a naval officer, journalist, and politician to achieve note as a historian with a book on the Inquisition in Lima...

• Parkman, Francis 1823-93, American historian, b. Boston. In 1846, Parkman started a journey along the Oregon Trail to improve his health and study the Native Americans. On his return to Boston he collapsed...

• Tabari (Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari) , c.839-c.923, Arab historian and commentator. The name Tabari was given him because he was born in Tabaristan, Persia. He traveled widely in Syria and Egypt, setting finally in Baghdad. He was...

• Vega, Garcilaso de la called the Inca: see Garcilaso de la Vega.

• Vicuña Mackenna, Benjamin 1831-86, Chilean historian and journalist. A vigorous opponent of the conservative government of Manuel Montt, he was sentenced to death for his part in the revolution of 1851-52, but escaped and...

• Yaqut al-Hamawi 1179-1229, Arab geographer. Born in Byzantium, he was bought as a slave by a merchant, al-Hamawi. He was freed on the death of his master and traveled extensively in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and...