Hanna Batatu (born 1926, Jerusalem – died 24 June 2000, Winsted, Connecticut) was a Palestinian historian specialising in the history of the modern Arab east. His work on Iraq is widely considered the pre-eminent study of modern Iraqi history. Jump to: navigation, search 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Jerusalem and the Old City. ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ... Winsted is a census-designated place and an incorporated city located in Litchfield County, Connecticut. ... Jump to: navigation, search ‹The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... Mashriq or Mashreq is the region of Arabic-speaking countries to the east of Egypt. ...

Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Hanna Batatu emigrated to the United States in 1948, the year of the Nakba in Palestine. From 1951 to 1953, he studied in Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He gained his doctorate in political science in Harvard University in 1960, with a dissertation entitled The Shaykh and the Peasant in Iraq, 1917-1958. From 1962 to 1982 he taught at the American University of Beirut, then from 1982 until his retirement in 1994 at Georgetown University in the United States. Jump to: navigation, search Jerusalem and the Old City. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Categories: Stub | 1948 Arab-Israeli War | Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Jump to: navigation, search Note: This institution should not be confused with Georgetown College Georgetown University is a major research university in the United States. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American University of Beirut (AUB) is a private, independent, non-sectarian university founded in 1866 in Beirut, Lebanon. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Jump to: navigation, search Note: This institution should not be confused with Georgetown College Georgetown University is a major research university in the United States. ...

Batatu started studying Iraqi history in the 1950s, taking a particular interest in the revolutionary movements which were then prominent in that country and especially in the Iraqi Communist Party. From the late 1950s on he travelled to Iraq several times, and succeeded in having access to communist political prisoners and secret police files before the revolution of 1958. He was allowed access to security service archives from various periods of Iraqi history, up until the 1970s, and used this and his considerable range of personal contacts with figures from different political movements to compose his study of political change in Iraq, The Old Social Classes and New Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (published in 1978). This work, while it focuses most strongly on the Iraqi Communist Party, also provides a wealth of information about the other revolutionary movements in the country as well as the ruling classes prior to 1958, and is considered one of the fundamental works on modern Iraqi history. Batatu's methodology is grounded in political sociology and considers in detail the social factors for the developments he covers, and even more so the social composition of the movements in question. Since its foundation in 1934, the Iraqi Communist Party (in Arabic: الحزب الشيوعي العراقي) has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. ...

Batatu also undertook a similar study of Syria, Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics (published in 1999).

External links

• Brief article on Hanna Batatu from cafearabica.com

Further reading

• The Old Social Classes and New Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, Hanna Batatu, London, al-Saqi Books, 2000. ISBN 0863565204

• Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics, Hanna Batatu, Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN 0691002541