Nadim Al-Bitar

Middle Eastern studies suffers from in-depth training in Middle Eastern language.  I have always argued in favor of restoring elements of Orientalist training.  Last week, Nadim Al-Bitar, died and not one mention of him anywhere in the US.  This is one of the major theoretician of Arab nationalism but has received little if any attention because he wrote exclusively in Arabic.  (There is an article about him in English by Tareq Ismail in Middle East Journal from 1971--check it out in JSTOR).  How ironic and sad (for him): the man who believed in the inevitability of Arab unity died a retired professor in Toledo, Ohio.