Tunisia bid a final farewell on June 1 to the prominent historian and scholar of Islam Hichem Djait, whose input was seminal to research on critical periods of Islamic history. From sociological, philosophical and anthropological perspectives, Djait’s publications offer insight into key issues facing the interpretation of Islamic history and the interaction of Islam with modernity.
Born in 1935 in Tunis to an erudite family in Islamic jurisprudence, Djait received a conservative education in his immediate milieu before attending the Sadiki high school in Tunis, which opened the gates for him to French and Western culture in general. He received an advanced degree in history in France in 1962. Afterwards, he obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic history from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1981.