| 1 | Name: | Dr. Ira M. Lapidus | |
| Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | ||
| Year Elected: | 1994 | ||
| Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
| Subdivision: | 404b | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||
A versatile scholar whose 1967 book revolutionized the study of Muslim cities, Ira Lapidus then generated a spate of follow-up investigations on the structure of medieval societies. In over 40 years of scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Professor Emeritus of History, Dr. Lapidus has proved exceptionally well versed in the scholarship of both western and eastern medieval studies. The author of works such as the aforementioned Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (1967) and A History of Islamic Societies (1988), Dr. Lapidus possesses an acute sense of how to express complex phenomena in simple terms. The longtime chair of Berkeley's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, he remains, through his scholarship and teaching, one of the most influential and creative interpreters of medieval Islam. | |||