Ira M. Lapidus is an Emeritus Professor of History, Islamic Social History at The University of California at Berkeley.[1] He is the author of A History of Islamic Societies, and Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective, among other works.
Lapidus was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was born to immigrant parents, who instilled a sense of the value of education in him and his brother. He attended Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, where a history teacher helped him prepare for admissions tests and suggested he pursue Asian history studies.[2]
Lapidus went on to college and graduate school at Harvard. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he took a course in Middle Eastern history taught by Sir Hamilton Gibb. He enjoyed the class and liked the instructor, who encouraged him to pursue social sciences in addition to history. Lapidus continued taking classes in Middle Eastern history, and upon graduation entered a career in academia.[2]
His personal interests include travel and photography.[2]
Contents |
Lifetime Achievement Award, Middle East Medievalists, 2001[3]
American Philosophical Society, elected member, 1994[4]
Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Study Center, 1990[5]
President, Middle East Studies Association, 1983-84[6]
Director, The Urban History Association, 1990—1996[7]
Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages, 1967, 1984
Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective, 1984
A History of Islamic Societies, 1988, 2002
Middle Eastern Cities, editor, 1969
Islam, Politics and Social Movements, editor (with Edmund Burke), 1988