Jacques Berque

Born on June 4, 1910. Died June on 27, 1995.

Education and professional career

1955: Doctorate from the Sorbonne. Initiator of an agrarian reform project, he was sent to the Atlas region, where he was to write his main thesis, the other on a 17^th century Maghrebian thinker
1953-1955: Leaving the administration, he moved to Egypt as a UNESCO international expert at the Sirs al-Layyan Basic Education Center. He then founded and directed for two years the Modern Arabic Learning Center in Bikfaya (Lebanon). In the meantime, he was elected to the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris
1956-1981: Professor at the Collège de France, holding the chair in Social History of Contemporary Islam
1968: Corresponding member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo
1980: Corresponding member of the Jordan Academy
In the course of a quarter-century's teaching, he trained numerous students from the West and the East, and visited some thirty countries, particularly in the Arab world, either as a UNESCO envoy or as a guest of national universities. These scientific activities did not distract him from taking part in the debates of the time (Algeria and Palestine in particular).
1982-1985: He chaired two ministerial missions, for the Ministries of Research and Education respectively, on scientific cooperation with the Third World and on children of immigrants at the Ecole de la République
1985: Fellow of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo