David Abulafia

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David Samuel Harvard Abulafia (born 12 December 1949, Twickenham, England) has been Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge since 2000 and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge since 1974.

Abulafia comes from a very old Sephardic family that left Spain for Galilee around 1492 and lived for many generations in Tiberias. His wife Anna Sapir Abulafia is a noted historian of Jewish-Christian relations. He was educated at St. Paul's School and King's College, Cambridge.

He has published several books on Mediterranean history and edited volume 5 of the New Cambridge Medieval History as well as a book on The Mediterranean in History which has appeared in six languages. He has given lectures in many countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the U.S., Japan, Israel and Egypt. His most influential book is Frederick II: a medieval emperor, first published in England in 1988 and reprinted many times in several Italian editions. He has been appointed Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana by the President of Italy in recognition of his writing on Italian history, especially Sicilian history, and he has also written about Spain, particularly the Balearic islands. He has shown an interest in the economic history of the Mediterranean, and in the meeting of the three Abrahamic faiths in the Mediterranean.