Shaw J. Dallal is a Palestinian-American author and professor. His novels include Scattered like Seeds and The Secret of Rose-Anne Riley.
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Early life and education
Dallal, the youngest of eight children, was born in Jerusalem on October 25, 1934. He studied at Al Fadiliyeh High School in Tulkaram and at St. George High School in Jerusalem where he attended until 10th grade. His family farmed.
Dallal went to Kuwait in December 1949 and worked there for the Kuwait oil company as a messenger boy. While there, he met an American missionary, Father Nicholas Dejong, who helped him attend night school at the British consulate. After nine months of studying, Dallal took an annual test. Fifteen thousand students from all parts of the Gulf countries and south Asia took the exam, and Dallal ranked third. Father Dejong helped Dallal apply to more than 25 colleges and universities in the United States, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell. All of them accepted him, but Cornell granted him a full scholarship. Dallal arrived at Cornell in September 1951 where he attended the College of Engineering. He completed his studies at Cornell in 1959 with a doctorate of jurisprudence.
Career
After practicing law for nearly 10 years in the United States, Dallal returned to Kuwait to become chief legal counsel for the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. His first novel Scattered like Seeds tackles the subject of divided loyalty and his own life experience that ultimately brought him back to Kuwait. His second novel The Secret of Rose-Anne Riley deals with young people's struggles.
Dallal taught Arabic as a part of the Middle Eastern studies and Islamic civilization program at Syracuse University. The first subject that Dallal taught was the Middle East and global political economy. He taught similar subjects at Colgate University, and was the first to teach Islamic jurisprudence. He retired from Colgate in 2012, as a Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies Emeritus. He also was an adjunct professor for international business management and international economics at Utica College from 1985 to 2001. From 1991 to 2004, he was an adjunct professor of political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.