With a focus on Arabic novels and poetry, in particular from writers of the last century, Syrian-American scholar Bassam K. Frangieh, Ph.D., offers nearly 30 years of experience in literary research and analysis. Dr. Bassam Frangieh began his scholastic research in Arabic at Damascus University and attended graduate school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he studied for both his Master of Science and doctorate in Arabic Language and Literature. Publishing initially in Middle Eastern literary journals such as Al-Thawrah al-Thaqafi and Al-Majallah al-Arabiya, he focused on the Arabic language and his first paper was titled Woe to a People Who Destroyed their Language, published in 1982.
Dr. Bassam Frangieh shifted his focus over time from language to literature, with his first English-language work being a series of biographical summaries of Arabic poets in the book Lyrics from Arabia. His first translation to English in 1990 was of Six Days, a book by the novelist and sociologist Halim Barakat. Eventually, Dr. Bassam Frangieh moved on to Arabic poetry, in particular the great works of Nizar Qabbani and Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, along with Mahmoud Darwish and Idriss el-Khouri. Dr. Frangieh still wrote extensively on the Arabic language, including a study on the semantics of the verb fa'ala (to do).
Over the course of his career, Dr. Bassam Frangieh also wrote a number of books on Arabic literature, primarily translations of Arabic poetry and novels from Barakat, Hanna Mina, and others. Dr. Bassam Frangieh wrote a treatise on al-Bayati shortly before the latter's death in 1999, and corresponded with the writer in a series of letters that were later published in an anthology. In addition, he wrote a textbook, Anthology of Arabic Literature, Culture, and Thought from Pre-Islamic Times to The Present for advanced Arab students, and has two more textbooks in development. Dr. Frangieh currently lectures as a Professor of Arabic at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
Bassam Frangieh on Peoplepond
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Bassam Frangieh on Plaxo
Bassam Frangieh on Peoplepond
