Background

Abdul-Karim Rafeq received his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1963. He formerly was Professor and Chairman, Department of History, University of Damascus, and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Chicago and California at Los Angeles. He was nominated Fulbright 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies in 1985. In 2003, Dr. Rafeq was nominated First Honorary Member of the Syrian Studies Association, affiliated with the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). In 2006, he was nominated Honorary Research Fellow at the Tokyo Bunko in Japan. Dr. Rafeq has published extensively in Arabic, English, and French about the Modern Middle Eastern History, with special reference to Syria.