Said, Edward Wadie

▪ 2004

      Palestinian American literary critic (b. Nov. 1, 1935, Jerusalem—d. Sept. 24, 2003, New York, N.Y.), reshaped scholarship in the humanities with his critique of Western studies of Oriental cultures but was more widely known for his staunch advocacy of Palestinian independence. In his most influential book, Orientalism (1978), Said argued that Western studies of the Orient, particularly the Islamic world, had been tainted by stereotypes that originated in European imperialism. The more publicly visible aspect of his defense of Islamic culture was his tireless effort to win recognition of Palestinian claims in the Middle East from Israel and the U.S. Said earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University (1957), and, while earning his Ph.D. (1964) from Harvard University, he joined (1963) the faculty of Columbia University, New York City, where he would remain for his entire career. After the Six-Day War of 1967, much of his writing polemicized against U.S. policy in the Middle East. Elected in 1977 to the Palestine National Council (PNC), the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, Said helped to secure the PNC's adoption of the two-state solution in Algiers in 1988. This paved the way for the negotiation of the Oslo Accords by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1990s. Said disapproved of the accords, however, calling them “an instrument of Palestinian surrender.” Although increasingly critical of the PLO leadership, Said began to withdraw from politics—even as fighting between Israelis and Palestinians intensified—in order to concentrate on music. In 1999 he and Israeli musician Daniel Barenboim founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an organization of young Arab and Israeli performers.

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