Georges Chehata

Anawati, OP
An Exceptional
Dominican Vocation
Georges Chehata Anawati, OP
1905-1994
Georges Anawati, a Dominican priest, was a recog-
nized scholar in Islamic studies. This smallpamphlet
is an introduction to this exceptional son of St.
Dominic. Father Stephen D. Ryan, OP, prepared
this work for the Vocations Office of the Dominican
Province of St. Joseph to help us appreciate the
human and scholarly dimensions of the Dominican
mission.
A Reflection: The Man and The Scholar
Pre Georges C. Anawati, OP (1905-1994) was a remarkable Do-
minican. One of his Dominican confreres described his life as one of
"untiring
activity and generosity of response to an exceptional voca-
tion." Although he was well known by members of the international
scholarly community-when he died special meetings were oga-
nizedby Christian and Islamic scholars in Cairo, Istanbul, Paris and
Rome to celebraTe his life and scholarship-Pre Anawati's work is
perhaps less well known than it might be by members of his own
religious family. His life as a religious of the Order of Preachers, the
force and charm of his personality, and his dedication to serious
intellectual endeavor in service of the Church are not only of intrin-
sic interest in their own right, but they also illustrate in a concrete
way the Dominican conviction that the enthusiastic pursuit of truth
is essentialto the apostolic mission of the Friars Preachers. Timothy
Radcliffe, OP, Master of the Order, stated, in his remarks at a gath-
ering held at Santa Sabina to honor Pre Anawati,
"l wish to stress
how completely our brother fulfilled one of the fundamental aspects
of our vocation as Friars Preachers: to relentlessly seek the truth,
with rigor, but also with an infectious enthusiasm."
Georges Anawati, the sixth of eight children, was born June 6,
1905 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Greek Orthodox family of Syrian
origin. At the age of 76 he enTered the Roman Gatholic Church
(Latin Rite), a decision which caused considerable tension in his fam-
ily.In 1928, havihg taken a degree in chemistry in France, he re-
turned to Egypt to work with two of his brothers in the family phar-
macy and laboratory. During these years in Cairo he became ac-
quainted with a French Dominican, Pre Jaussen (1871,-1962\, an
Arabic scholar who had opened the Dominican house in Cairo in
7928.|n his reading he was deeply influenced by the writings of the
Dominican theologian Pre Sertillanges (1863-1948).
In 1,934, at the age o 29, he enTered the Dominican Order in
France and completed his philosophical and theological studies at
the Dominican studium known as the Saulchoir. The Dominicans in
Cover Emblem' Seal of the Institut Dominicain d'tudes Orientales
France at that Time were experiencing a great intellectual renais-
sance and Pre M.-D. Chenu (1395-1990) had recently been made
regent of studies at the Saulchoir. It was Chenu who was instrumen-
talin the creation of the /nsfif ut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales
(IDEO) in Cairo which Anawati would direct from 7953-1984.1n 1939,
the year he was ordained to the priesthood, Pre Anawati published
his first scholarly article, which was entitled: "Philosophie arabe,"
(published in a volume on mediaeval philosophy edited by Chenu).
The title reflects one of the areas of specialization to which Anawati
would devote himself.
Anawati spent most of the war years in North Africa, first in
Algeria completing an advanced degree in Arabic and then, from
1944 on, in Egypt. In Algeria he made many close ties with Muslim
scholars and also with members of the religious communities which
took their inspiration from Charles de Foucauld,
'the
Hermit of the
Sahara.' He was deeply influenced by their spirituality and enjoyed
visiting the Little Sisters of Jesus in Rome, Washington, and else-
where.
ln 1944 he arrived in Cairo and set to work transforming the
Dominican house there from an annex of the cole Biblique in Jerusa-
lem, which it had been since 1928, to an independent institution
devoted to advanced research in Islam and Arabic studies (IDEO).
During these early years in Cairo Anawati also completed his gradu-
ate studies, taking a Ph,D. from the Institute of Medival Studies of
the University of Montreal (1948-1950).
While most of his academic life was centered on teaching and
research at IDEO, Pre Anawati travelled frequent not only to teach
in Europe and the United States, but also to attend scholarly meet-
ings of the various Medivalist and Orientalist societies to which he
belonged. In Cairo, when celebrating the community mass, it is said
that Pre Anawati would place a list of some 320 names on the altar,
many undoubtedly the names of the scholars of allfaiths with whom
he had formed lasting friendships.
Pre Anawati was passionate about the Dominican vocation. His
brothers in Cairo describe him as a man of prayer who was present
faithfully at choraloffice, meals, and recreation. Regis Morelon, OP
4
noted: "Throughout his whole life, his passion for the Order of Preach-
ers never waned." This passion for the Dominican life and his frater-
nal charity is evident in a letter to his former teacher, Pre Chenu,
when the latter was condemned by Rome in February on 7942.
Anawati wrote to Chenu:
I, with perhaps too great a delay, desire in turn to tellyou (but
is it indeed necessary to tell you?) how much I remain united
with you in the ordealwhich has afflicted you-and which has
afflicted us along with you. The debt I personally owe you I
sense more and more every day, when, having contact with
other Orders, I verify by experience what you have taught
us-how beautiful and how urgent our Dominican vocation is.
Your "message" perdures, whatever be the human contingen-
cies of the moment....(Letter of April 23,7942).
It is characteristic of the Dominican vision of the intellectual life
that "before
all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at
this that we might be able to be usefulto the souls of our neighbors."
(Primitive Constitutions, Prologue; LCO 77\. Pre Anawati's dedica-
tion to the Christianlslamic dialogue grew out of his deep desire to
be of use to his neighbor and to his native land. From his own expe-
rience as an Arab Christian in Egypt he well knew that the political
future of Egypt depended on the mutual respect of its Muslim and
Christian citizens. Pre Anawati served this end with the totality of
his life, but particularly with his scholarship. Although his research
was often technical and highly specialized (one of his books was
entitled History of Drugs and Medicines in Antquity and the
Middle Age.s
[1959,
in Arabicl), it was his deep learning that enabled
him to be so effective in building bridges between cultures and peoples
of different faiths.
Five years ago a memorial volume was published by Anawati's
confreres in Cairo (Le Pre G. C. Anawoti, O.P., [1905-1994]
Parcours d'une uie. Cairo: Institut Dominicain d'tudes Orientales,
7996). One of the articles collected in that volume was written by
Richard Frank of The Catholic University of America, a close friend
of Anawati and himself an eminent Arabist and past president of the
American Oriental Society. That article, which was originally pub-
lished in the lVeurslef ter ot' the American Oriental Society, is re-
printed here with Professor Frank's permission. It beautifully cap-
tures the importance and lasting significance of Pre Anawati's re-
markable Dominican vocation.
Stephen D. Ryan, OP
Dominican House of Studies
Washington, DC
Georges Chehata Anawati, OP
Born
Family:
Age 16:
Studies:
7934
7939
1948-50
1953-1984
1963
1978
1982
1984
1990
Died
June 6, 1905, Alexandria, Egypt
Greek Orthodox family of Syrran origrn
receivedinto the Roman Catholic Church (Latin Rite)
University of St. Joseph, Beirut (Pharmacology)
University of Lyon, France (Chemistry)
Entered the Dominican Order, studied at the Saulchoir
Ordained to the Priesthood
Ph.D. from the Medival Institute, Univers of
Montreal
Director of the Insit ut Dominicain d'tudes
Orientales (IDEO)
Second Vatican Council,
Secretariat for the Unity of Christians
Doctorate Honoris Couso
from the University of Louvarn
Named to the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope
John Paul II
Doctorate Honoris Causs
from The Catholic Universi of America
Named honorary member of the Socit Asiatque
(Pans)
January 28,1994, Cairo, Egypt
A Memoriam
Pre Anawati died in his room
at the Institut Dominicain
d'tudes Orientales du Caire
on January 28th, 7994, the
feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
One token of the universal es-
teem in which he was held is
that the notice of his death,
together with a photograph,
appeared on the front page of
al-Ahrsm the following day,
while telegrams of condolence
were sent, by President Mou-
barak, Kamal Hilmi, president
of the Egyptian parliament, and
Ismet Abd al-Magid, Secretary
General of the Arab League.
Many members of the Society will have known Pre Anawati
personally; numerous others will know him for some or for many of
the rich diversity of his more than 250 contributions to oriental
studies, most likely perhaps for his Mu'allafat lbn Sns: Essqi de
bibliographie aucnienne (Cairo, 1950), his edition of Avicenna's
Ilahiyyat al-Shifa' (Cairo,1960)and its translation, L a mtaphysique
du Shifa', introduction, traduction et commentaire (2 uols., Paris
797 8, 7985) or his Etudes de philosophie musulmone (Paris, 797 4],,
a collection of studies covering the general character of Muslim
philosophy, the transmission of the Neoplatonic tradition in Islam,
Avicenna, 'Abd al-Jabbar, and Fakhruddin al-Razi, and for the two
works which he published in collaboration with Louis GardeT,Intro'
duction la thologie musulmone (Paris, 1948, translated into
Arabic by F. Jabre and S. Salih, 3 vols., Beyrou|I',1967-69) and Lo
mystque musulmane, ospects et tendances: Exprences et tech-
nques (Paris, 1961) and for the annual survey of classical and
8
Abna Anawati
medieval Arabic texts published in Egypt, which he prepared for
MIDEO from 1954 until quite recently, when the task was taken over
by others.
He also wrote a number of works in Arabic, among Them Tarkh
al-saydala wal-qaqr
f-t-ahd
al-qadm wal-sr al-wast (The His-
tory of Drugs and Medicines in Antiquity and the Middle ages, Cairo,
1959) and al-Mashiyya wal-hadara al-rabiyya (Christianity and
Arab Culture, Cairo, 79921. There is at present no complete bibli-
ography of Pre Anawati's publications. That given in the Festschrift
presented to him and to Louis Gardet (Recherches d'lslamologie,
"Bibliothque philosophique de Louvain" 26, Louvain I976) gives
some 230 items; a complete list is being prepared by his colleagues
of the IDEO and should appear shortly.
Born in Alexandria, Pre Anawati studied pharmacy at the Universit
St. Joseph in Beirut and then chemistry at the University of Lyon,
after which he returned to Alexandria in 7929 where he worked in the
fami laboratory. He had a strong interest in philosophy and theo-
logy, however, and, having studied the works of Aristotle and
Aquinas, was particularly impressed with the writing of A.D. Sertillanges
and J. Mariiain, which were to mark much of his subsequent thought
and writing. Already in the early thirties he had entered into cor-
respondance with Louis Massignon, who subsequently was to be-
come a very close friend. A short time later, encouraged by Yusuf
Karam, then Professor of Philosophy atthe Egyptian University, Pre
Anawati entered the Dominican Order in 1934, taking the religious
name Marie-Marcel. He studied philosophy and theology at the
Saulchoir, the Studium of the Dominican Province of France, which
at the time was located in Belgium. He was ordained in 1939 and
subsequently
,in7947,completed
his
"thse
de lectorat" at Saint-Albain
Leysse in Savoy which entitled him to teach philosophy and theology
as a member of Dominican faculties.
Later the same year, unable to return to occupied France, he went
to Algiers where he took his licentiate in Arabic in 1943 and was
appointed by Charles Kuentz as Egyptian Attach of the Institui
Franais d'Archologie for Algiers. He remainedThere untilAugust
1944. During his Algierian stay he formed close and enduring ties with
a number of oriental scholars, among them Robert Brunschvig,
Marius Canard, Georges Marcais, Henri Prs, Jean Cantineau, and
variste Lvi-Provenal, and with others then working in Morocco,
such as G. S. Colin, H. P. J. Renaud, and Louis Brunot. Most im-
portant, however, was his close association with Louis Gardet, whose
acquaintance he had first made some time earlier at the Saulchoir.
Gardet, a member of the Petits Frres de Jsus (with the religious
name, Petit Frre Andr-Marie), resided in the Dominican house in
Algiers during 1943 and 7944 and it was there that Pre Anawati's
long career of research and publication on Muslim philosophy,
theology, and mysticism began simultaneously with his long continu-
ing collaboration with Gardet. So too, in the early stages of his career,
he established, during a brief stay in Jerusalem in 1945-46, close
contactswith scholars such as D. H. Baneth and S. Pines, whose work
he especially admired.
Following his initial period of travel, Pre Anawati settled in the
Dominican house in Abbassiya, where, through his association with
Charles Kuentz and Youssef Karam, he formed close ties with Fuad
Sayyid, Ahmad Amin, Ibrahim Madkour, Mahmoud Khodeiri, and
with Taha Husayn who, with his wife Suzanne, became and remained
his very close friends.
The Dominican residence in Abbassiyawas originallyestablished by
Pre Antonin Jaussen in 1928 as a kind of adjunct to the cole
Biblique of Jerusalem. Already in the mid-thirties, however, the then
Rector of the Saulchoir, Pre M.-D. Chenu (d. 1990), one of the
foremost theologians of the century, keenly aware of the religious,
cultural, and historical importance of Islam, both in itself and for its
profound influence on the intellectual development of Western
Europe, urged the formation of a center for the study of Islam and
especially of its philosophical, theological, and religious thought. So
it was that immediately after the war a small research group was
formed consisting of Pres Anawati, Jacques Jomier, and Serge de
Laugier de Beaurecueil (it was he who conducted the funeralservices
for Marie Bernand last year in Montrouge), who were joined not long
afterwards by Pre Dominique Boilot and eventually by a number of
others. The Institut Dominicain d'tudes Orientales (IDEO)was offi-
10
cially inaugurated in 1953 with Pre Anawatias director, a position
he retained until 1984. The first issue of MIDEO (Mlanges de
I'lnstitut Dominicain d'tudes Orientales) appeared the following
year.
Pre Anawatiserved as Professor of Pharmacy at the University of
Alexandria from 1955 and was a visiting professor on more than one
occasion at the Universities of Ottawa, Montreal, and Louvain, and
at regular intervals for a number of years at the University of California
at Los Angeles. He was for many years an honorary member of the
American OrientalSociety and was a member of the Institut d'gypte
and a knight of the Lgion d'Honneur. He received honorary doc-
torates at the Catholic University of Louvain and the Catholic
University of America and was awarded the medal of the International
Society for the Study of Medieval Philosophy at its meeting of IOOZ
in Ottawa. To some it came at times to seem that he was continually
on the move, lecturing, attending meetings and colloquia, or serving
on one or another commission, so much so, indeed, thai one friend
suggested that he returned to Egypt only occasionally in order to
renew his passport.
Through all of these many activities and preoccupations, however,
his life never lost its integral focus on three things: his religious life as
a friar of the Dominican Order, the study of the history of philosophy
and theology, and the progress of the Muslim-Christian dialogue. The
week before his death-and despite the great difficulty he had in
getting about, even in his wheel chair-he left the house to attend a
meeting of al-lkha' al-dini, a religious association made up of in-
tellectuals of different faiths who meet once a month for discussion.
The IDEO, located on Shari'Masna'al-Tarabish (Tarboush Factory
Street)-and f or this one of the brethren has dubbed it la tarbouchire-
is a very special place for all those who have worked there or have
been associated with it. Though perpetually short of funds, it houses
a truly outstanding library for the study of the intellectual and religious
history of Islam, consisting presently of some eighty thousand vol-
umes, not counting journals, assembled through the constant eforts
of Pre Anawati, in large part by virtue of his contacts with a host of
people, scholars, writers, diplomats, officials, publishers, and busi-
11
nessmen and his close personal relationship with a number of book
dealers, both in Egypt and abroad. Because of Pre Anawati's long
association with Louis Gardet and with the Petits Frres, Gardet's
library has now been integrated into that of the Institute. It contains
also, we might note, a rich fund of materials concerning popular
sufism bequeathed by Dr. Ernst Bannerth, an Austrian priest and
orientalist who, not long after he had come to Cairo to study sufi
confraternities, requested and was granted residence at the Institute
where he lived until his deathin7976; stories are stilltold of Bannerth
and of his regular participation in the dhikr of various groups who
were never quite sure whether he was a Muslim or not.
The Institute with its resident Dominican community is a very
special place, however, not because of its library-for even if not
numerous, such are to be found elsewhere-but because it is endowed
with a unique atmosphere of openness, congeniality and human
warmth that are due in great part, if not entirely, to the spirit of Pre
Anawati, who was indeed a very special kind of individual (for whom
else of his wandering colleagues did Franz Rosenthal ever prepare
dinner?). It was because of this unique atmosphere that as Norman
Daniel (d. 7992), for many years the Director of the British Council,
was contemplating retirement from the cultural office of the Embassy
in Cairo, his wife Ruth turned to Pre Anawati as the three of them
were dining one evening-they were very close friends-and asked,
hopefully, though only half seriously because the request seemed
plainly preposterous, if they might build a house on the Dominican
property ("dans le jardin du couvent"). Later, having considered the
matter and consulted the community-the question had hardly been
expected-Abna was happy to agree and the Daniels moved into
their house in 1979.
It was characteristic that Pre Anawati's many travels and varied
activities resulted not in the establishment of ordinary academic
contacts and professional connections with their sometimes ex-
changes of information and favors, but in the formation of real and
enduring bonds of affection which were cherished and maintained.
For those who knew him, both for his close friends, a significant
number of whom were neither scholars nor intellectuals, and for the
1.2
many colleagues who had opportunities, frequent or infrequent, to
share his company, Abna Anawati was far more than an affable
scholar of international renown. His personality was marked by extra-
ordinary warmth and generosity and his characteristically Egyptian
love of verbal exchange, enlivened by a teasing, sometimes almost
taunting dialectic (described by one friend as de tendance auicnienne
anawatisante) made his presence a delight for all save the incurably
stuffy and self-righteous, whom he occasionally left a bit perplexed,
as they did him. This love of laughter and conversation serious and
semlserious and downright playful-of talk and stories and of
disputational sport-he exercised as spontaneously and joyfully at
bus-stops and on crowded buses with the ordinary citizens and
laborers of Cairo or Paris as with learned professors, sheikhs, and
dignitaries at formal gatherings or with his Dominican confreres at
table.
Pre Anawati's religious faith was that of traditional Catholicism
and his theological and philosophical formation firmly rooted in a
traditionalThomism. Inevitably, some of his deeply held convictions
and opinions were not fully shared by all his varied friends and
colleagues or aquaintances. Conflict and confrontation, however,
were altogether alien to his character and disposition, for which
mutual respect and the maintenance of friendship wee ever upper-
most. Divergences of views, when they surfaced, were noted but
invariably blunted or turned aside; often by some humorous remark.
Pre Anawati's room, like the man himself, gave an extraordinary
impression. Besides the seeming chaos of books and boxes of prints
and middens of papers that seemed to fill most of the space, there was
a long bench with shelves supporting hundreds of small jars and
bottles filled with an assortment of chemicals and a bunsen burner,
often lit as, for a brief respite from more arduous tasks, he would
undertake some simple experiment, following perhaps something
that he had seen in one or another text. In the evening, illumined only
by the small lamp on his desk, the room had the look of an alchemist's
shop, and so it was frequently described by the residents of the house.
And there he would sit, all day long at his work, taking time off for the
community recitation of the office, meals and the brief
"recreation"
13
at noon-coffee and talk with residents and guests- followed by a
short siesta. In the evening he could be seen occasionally fighting
sleep about 10:30, but soon the busy sound of his typewriter could be
heard untilabout 2 AM when he would finally retire, to rise again at
six in the morning, say mass at a local convent and return once again
to his desk. But his door was never closed. However busy, Pre
Anawati was always ready, at whatever hour, day or night, to offer his
help to any onewho sought it-whethera memberof the community,
a visiting scholar, a student or a casual visitor to the library-with
whatever problem or question, however trivial it might be. More than
once he arranged to interrupt the routine of his work several times a
week over the course of an entire semester to read philosophicaltexts
with younger scholars or with students who had come to Cairo to do
research or to study. Finally, at the age of 88, anxious to complete
what he described as his grande oeuure, entitled Le Dieu Un
(sl-TaL))hid): Existence, Attributs ef lVoms, Cration, he was per-
suaded to exchange his ancient typewriter for a word processor and
in the last letter I received from him, shortly beore his death, he was
still jovially complaining of the refractoriness of the machine and
lauding the patience of his confreres who were helping him to tame it.
II tait toujours gal lui-mme.
Pre Anawati's death tokens not merely the passing of a generation
of great scholars but, in a real sense, that of the pioneer period of the
modern study of Muslim philosophy and theology.
Richard M. Frank
Catholic University of America
Washington DC
Reprinted, with permission, from:
The Newsletter ot' the American Oriental Society,
Number 77 (1994) pp. 1-6.
74
Selected Bibliography of
Fr. Anawati's Life
items relating to
and Work
Anawati, G.C. "Georges C. Anawati (par lui-mme)," Philosophes
critiques d'eux-mmes, ed. by A. Mercier and M.Svilar, vol.14,
pp.7-57. Berlin: Peter Lang, 1990.
Arnaldez, R. and S. van RieT. Recherches d'Islamologie, Recueil
d'articles oft'ert Georges C. Anawat et Lois Gardet par leurs
collgues et amis. Louvain: Peeters, 1977.
van Ess, Josef. "Georges Chehata Anawati, O.P. (1905-1994),"
Zetschrif t der Deutschen Morgenl ndischen Gesellschat't
746 (7996) 262-268.
Frank, Richard.
"Georges
Chehata Anawati (1905-1994),"
Newsletter ot' the American Oriental Socety 77 (1994) 7-6.
Morelon, Rgis. Le Pre G.C. Anawati, O.P., (1905'1994) Parcours
d'une uie. Cairo: Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales, 1996.
Note:
Pre Anawati's bibliography includes 31 books (12 of which he wrote
in collaboration with another author)and over 250 articles. Among
his better known works are: lntroduction la thologie musulmane
(7948, in collaboration with Louis Gardet), the Frenh translation of
Avicenna's Metaphyscs (1978-1985), Hstory of Drugs and Medi-
cines (\959, in Arabic), Chrstanty and Arab Culture (7992, in
Arabic).
15