IBN RUSHD PRIZE for Freedom of Thought 2005

Members of the jury

Bin Salem Himmich

Bin Salem Himmich, a Morroccan novelist and essayist, born 1945, is the author of more than 26 books in Arabic and French, most of which deals with historical and political subjects. Among his works are Majnun al-hukm 1990 (an novel about the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim li-Dinillah), De la formation idéologique en islam: Ijtihâdât et histoire 1981, al-Tarakum al-salbi wa-al-ilm al-nafi, The Polymath and La connaissance de l’autre (Rabat, 2001). Bin Salem has received many prizes, amongst them the prize for novel criticism (London 1990), the Nagib Mahfuz-Prize for his novel "al-Allama" in Cairo 2002, and the UNESCO prize for Arab Culture in 2003.

Fahmi Jadaane

Fahmi Jadaane was born in Ain al-Gazal in Palestine in 1939. He studied Philosophy at the University of Sorbonne/Paris. Jadaane got his PhD in 1968 in „L’influence du stoicisme sur la Pensée musulmane“, Beirut 1968. After 1977 he was appointed teaching professor at universities in Jordan, France (Sorbonne Nouvelle and College de France), Kuwait and Oman. Since 2001 Prof. Jadaane is Direktor of Philosophy at the College for Higher Studies/Kuwait University.

He has published many books in Arabic, French and English, for example his PhD and articles in STUDIA ISLAMICA (1967 and 1971). His book "Usus al-taqaddum fi l-fikr al-´arabi" 1979 (The Basis for Developing Arab Thought) already caused a sensation in the 1980s all around the Arab World. Most recent publications are his articles „Revealed Text and the Manifestation of Reason. Introduction to Philosophy in Islamic Culture“ and „Philosophy in Islam: The Royal Road“ in The different Aspects of Islamic Cultures, Volume Five, pp. 351-381, UNESCO Publishing, Paris 2003.

Mohammad Arkoun

Mohammad Arkoun was born in Taourirt-Mimoun, a town in Qabail al-Kubra in Algeria. He spent his primary education in Taourirt-Mimoun and his secondary education in Wahran. He majored in philosophy in the universities of Algeria and Sorbonne. Prof. Arkoun attained his PhD in philosophy at the university of Sorbonne in 1968. During his study he lectured Arabic language in Paris in 1956. From 1961-1991 Prof. Arkoun was teaching professor at Sorbonne university and a visiting professor at several universities in Europe and USA. Today Prof. Arkoun is retired professor and member at the Board of Governors in the Islamic Institute in London. In addition to that, he is the editor of science affairs at the Magazine Arabica since 1980. Mohammed Arkoun has received many prizes, for example the Officer of Ehrenlegion and of Palmes académiques; the prestigious Lévi Della Vida-Prize of California University, Los Angeles 2002, Honour Doctor of Exeter University. 2003 IBN RUSHD PRIZE for Freedom of Thought.

Radwa Ashour

Radwa Ashour (born 1946 in Cairo) is Professor of English literature in Ain Shams University. She graduated in English Literature in 1967 (BA) and continued her studies in Comparative Literature at the Cairo University, where she took her Master degree in 1972. 1975 she took a PhD in Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts (USA).

Professor Ashour is committee member in different organizations in the field of culture and society, for example the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Egyptian Higher Council for Culture. Radwa Ashour is visiting professor at many universities in the Arab World, Europe and in the United States.

Radwa Ashour is not only an academic, she has also written several novels, short stories and essays. She has been awarded many times, for example 1993 she won best prize at the International Book Fair in Cairo for her Andalusian triology Granada, for which she also won best prize at the first book fair for Arab women writers in 1995.

Werner Ende

Professor emeritus Dr. Werner Ende was born in 1937 in Wittenberg , Germany. He studied Islamic history and sociology at the Universities of Halle an der Saale, Hamburg and Cairo. He took his PhD in 1965 and was qualified to become university professor in 1974. Prof. Ende was employed at the German Orient Institute in Hamburg (1964-1967) and at the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft DMG in Beirut (German Oriental Society) (1969-1971). He was an academic assistant lecturer at the University of Hamburg (1967-1969 and 1971-1977). His appointment as a Professor for Contemporary Islamic Studies followed in 1977. In 1983 he was appointed professor for Islamic Studies at the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg. He obtained his emeritus status in autumn 2002.

Werner Ende is the author of many publications on the intellectual history of contemporary Islam, on Arabic historiography, on Wahhabiya and the Shia, for example Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte (the Arab Nation and History of Islam), The Nakhawila, a Shiite Community in Medina, The Twelver Shia in Modern Times and Der Islam der Gegenwart (Contemporary Islam). He is editor-in-chief (and editor) of a view important journals on the Islamic world namely Freiburger Islamstudien, Die Welt des Islams (World of Islam), Mitteilungen zur Sozial-und Kulturgeschichte der islamischen Welt” (Report on the Social and Cultural History of the Islamic World).