Elie Kedourie, R I P

National Review, July 20, 1992

ELIE KEDOURIE, who died suddenly at the age of 66, was not only one of the world's leading authorities on Middle Eastern politics, but also a distinguished and influential scholar in the field of political philosophy. After attending a lycee in Baghdad, where he was born, he went to the London School of Economics to study under Michael Oakeshott. He shared Oakeshott's conservative sympathies and his interest in Hegel, and on Oakeshott's retirement he took over his famous seminar on the philosophy of history, which attracted participants from many countries.

Kedourie was a man of deep and disciplined religious beliefs, together with a commitment to the idea of the university as an institution dedicated to learning. Although most of his books were about Middle Eastern problems, he reached a larger audience with pamphlets and articles in defense of scholarship both against populist dilution of standards and against the introduction of vocational training to the university. In one of his very last public lectures, at the Wilson Center in Washington, he denounced the intrusion of political ideologies into university education.

English was only his third language, after French and Arabic, yet Kedourie could express rebarbative opinions in a most mellifluous and enchanting style. His writings are a joy to read. --MAURICE CRANSTON