Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Kamal Abd Al-Fattah, whose full name is Kamal Jabr Hassan Abdel Fattah Jabarin, (Abu Qais; February 9, 1943 - January 27, 2023) was a Palestinian geographer, historian, and writer, known as the “Sheikh of Palestinian Geographers.”
His biography
Kamal Jabr Hassan Abd Al-Fattah Jabarin was born on February 9, 1943 in Umm al-Fahm in Mandatory Palestine. After the Nakba of 1948, he took refuge with his family in the village of Silat al-Harithiya in the Jenin district. He received his primary education in the village schools, and after he finished high school, he joined the University of Damascus in the Geography Department. At the College of Arts there.
Since mid-September 1978, he worked as a professor of geography at Birzeit University, then in 1980 he became the second dean of the Faculty of Arts at the university. He worked to establish two departments at the university, one for history and the other for geography. He was also head of both the Middle East Studies Department and the Geography Department at the university, and worked as a visiting professor. In several universities in the United States of America and Germany.
In 1979, he launched and led the first geographic exploratory trips that traveled throughout Palestine, starting from Birzeit to the Jordan Valley, Al-Hula, Safed, Acre, Haifa, Tulkarm, Gaza, and the Negev. Since the spring of 1987, he also led a team to excavate the remains of the destroyed Palestinian villages located in northern and central Palestine.
His writings
He has a number of publications and books, including:
"Historical Geographic Systems".
"The Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan, Southern Syria, and Lebanon in the Sixteenth Century AD."
"Palestinian Economic Development in the Late Ottoman Period."
“Mountain farmers and peasants in Asir.”
His death
He died on Friday, January 27, 2023 in Jenin, at the age of about 80 years.
They said about him
The Palestinian chemist Abdel Latif Abu Hijleh says about Kamal Abdel Fattah: “He worked for a long time to bring the world to his students within the walls, and led them from their passion outside it to explore the terrain and come into contact with the land, air, and nature, and wander in it, to establish a good practice called - education through journeys.”
Achievements and Awards
Awards and honors
He received several awards and honors, including:
Abd Al Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arabs in Social Sciences, 1983.
State of Palestine Prize in Social Sciences, 1997.
Honored by Birzeit University, in an official ceremony on February 9, 2019, “in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the fields of education, culture, and academics in Palestine, and his pioneering geographical and historical research,” where he was honored by the University President, Abdul Latif Abu Hijleh, and the Chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees, Hanna Nasser.
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