Birth: NULL/NULL/1936 Death:29/12/2003
Born in Jaffa in 1936; also known as Abu At-Tayyib; moved with his family to Syria after the 1948 Nakba and then to Libya; was member of the Muslim Brotherhood; worked as a high school teacher in Syria and Libya from 1951-64, during which period he also studied History, receiving a BA (focusing on Libyan studies) from Damascus University in 1958 and an MA from Cairo University in 1963; PNC member since 1964; continued his studies and received a PhD in History from Cairo University in 1970; was a lecturer at the Center for Arab Research and Studies in Cairo from 1972-74 and guest professor at a number of Arab universities; from 1974-79, headed the History Dept. at Cairo University; member of the PLO Executive Committee from 1977-85, serving as chair of the Education and Culture Dept.; Chair of the PNC’s Cultural, Science & Literature Committee, and member of the PLO Central Council; was a director of the PLO Research Center and co-founder of its organ Shu’un Filastiniyya (Palestine Affairs); member at the Palestinian delegation to the UN in 1974 and 1984; took active part in the Arab-European dialogue from 1975 to 1989, and became closely involved in the founding of several Arab organizations, incl. the Center of Arab Unity Studies (Lebanon, 1975), the Arab Organization for Human Rights (Cyprus, 1982), the Arab Thought Forum (1985), the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (Egypt, 1987), and the Arab Nationalist Congress (1989); Board of Trustees member of the London-based Palestinian Return Center; criticized the 1993 Oslo Accords as well as the PLO’s leadership in word and writing; played a major role in founding the Arab nationalist-Islamist conference in Beirut in 1994 (aimed at addressing the changing international situation as it was confronting the Arab and Muslim World) and was elected as its first coordinator general; has extensively written on Arab and Islamic affairs; received honors from the Arab Language Academy in Cairo, the Royal Academy of Morocco, and the Royal Foundation for Islamic Research in Amman; died in Cairo on 29 Dec. 2003.
