Muhsin Mahdi died. Former professor of Islamic philosophy at Harvard University died. This Iraqi studied at the American University of Beirut in the 1940s (he was in the same group with Hisham Sharabi--see the references to Mahdi in Sharabi's memoirs, Jamr Wa Ramad), and then studied at the University of Chicago. He fell under the spell of Leo Strauss. Leo Strauss took great interest in him, and encouraged him over the year. He worked on Ibn Khaldun and his book, Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of History is one of my favorite books of Middle East studies. It is a very important book. Mahdi had the language skills of classical Orientalists: had excellent command of English, Arabic, Persian, German, French, Hebrew, and I think he knew Turkish but I am not sure. I am not sure that Mahdi was the first Arab to be a tenured professor at Harvard University--it may have been that guy Sabra who taught history of Islamic science, and who had only contempt for Arabs and Muslims. Mahdi succeeded Hamiltion Gibb as the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard when Gibb retired. I read Mahdi of course, but did not meet him until 1991-1992. It was during a time I spent months exploring the Arabic collection at the Widener Library at Harvard. What a collection. I can spend a life time there (do they have lizards in the stacks?). One day I was doing my daily routine in the stacks, and there he was facing me. He said that he has seen me the day before on PBS talking about (or against) US policy toward Iraq at the time. He said that he agreed with my observations. He saw an old book I was holding, and started asking about my connection with the Arabic language. He invited me to see him in his office, and saw him a few time when I was in town. At the time, he has just completed his work on Arabian Nights. He was most proud: he showed me a geneology of the work that he has prepared. He traveled around the world to find every bit of information on the origins of the work. He showed me the computer on which the manuscript was prepared. He then talked to me about Fouad Ajami. He was aghast that Ajami was offered a position at Harvard. He said that he was a media phenomenon and not an academic phenomenon. He then showed me a copy of the Harvard Crimson in which he was interviewed on the Ajami appointment. He was quoted by name, but then there was a "source at the Center" who was quite critical of Ajami. He told me that he also was the anonymous source, but urged me to not tell anybody. But I was rather surprised. Why would a tenured professor at Harvard who was close to retirement be so concerned about people knowing that he was the source of the negative quotes on Ajami. But that reminded me of what former teacher of Arabic at Harvard, Muhammad `Alwan, had told me: that Mahdi is so afraid of taking a political stance. He told me that once a flyer of AAUG was posted on the bulletin board early in the tenure of Mahdi at CMES, and that Mahdi removed it and announced that "we have no politics here". And that was during the early years of AAUG in the wake of 67 defeat. But Sharabi in his memoirs makes the same complaint: that Mahdi avoided taking political stances. I asked Mahdi about that and he simply said that he never read Sharabi's book. It was clear that Sharabi and him never liked one another. I asked him about a book on Political Philosophy that was edited by Strauss, in which Mahdi has an important chapter on Farabi. I was surprised that Strauss would have such a high opinion of Farabi. He explained to me that Strauss' admiration from Farabi stemmed from Maimonides' admiration of Farabi who dubbed him "the second teacher." Mahdi also knew Hanna Batatu and told me about helping Batatu with contacts in Iraq. There is a book of Mahdi's articles edited by his student, Charles Butterworth.