Name Ali Al-Wardi Genre Social Sciences | Language Arabic Parents Hussain Al-Wardi | |
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Notable works A Study into the Nature of Iraqi Society, Preachers of the Sultans Alma mater University of Texas at Austin Books Iraq in Turmoil: Historical Perspectives of Dr. Ali Al-Wardi, from the Ottoman Empire to King Feisal | ||
Ali Al-Wardi (Arabic: علي حسين محسن الوردي) was an Iraqi Social Scientist specialized in the field of Social history.
Contents
Biography
Born in Kadhimiya, Baghdad in 1913, to a religious and a very traditional family. He grew up defying his family's strict no-modern-education policy, where his father wanted him to learn a craft instead of reading books. Nevertheless, Al-Wardi grow up with a disliking for work and a strong liking for books.
He managed to finish his elementary and high school and awarded the number one student on the Kingdom of Iraq. He later was appointed as a teacher in many elementary and high schools across Iraq, before winning a scholarship to the American University of Beirut where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1943. He was back to Iraq and was forced to be married by his father's orders.
However, in few years travelled to the United States to attain his Masters and Ph.D. degrees, he earned his Masters degree in 1948 from The University of Texas and his Ph.D. in 1950 from the same university. During that time he used to spend his summers in the United Kingdom learning English in available institutes.
He came back to Iraq to start his career in writing many of his books based on the theory of Ibn Khaldun about Al-Badwa (Nomadic society) vs Al-Hadhara (Civil society).
Works
The most important works of Dr. Ali Al-Wardi are:
- Psychological Insights from Modern Iraqi History
- A Study into the Nature of Iraqi Society
- The Personality of the Iraqi Individual: A Study of Iraqi Personality in Light of New Psychological Science
- The Sultans' Preachers (Arabic: وعَّاظ السلاطين)
- The Mockery of the Human Mind (Arabic: مهزلة العقل البشري)
- Ibn Khaldoon’s Teachings based on his Character, Civilization and Personality
- The Sage of the Fine Arts
- Dreams Between Science and Belief
- The Secrets of a Successful Personality
- That is How they Killed the Princess (water-cress)
In 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, through its publishing house, Dar al-Mamoon, has commissioned a team of the best Iraqi translators to translate al-Wardi's major work لمحات اجتماعية من تاريخ العراق الحديث (Social Glimpses of Iraq's Modern History), and Yasin T. al-Jibouri, is one of them. Al-Jibouri's contribution is the translation of Volume Six and its supplement which is renamed Volume Seven.