Jean-Pierre Filiu
Jean-Pierre Filiu | |
|---|---|
 Filiu in 2015 | |
| Born | 19 December 1961 Paris, France |
| Education | INALCO Sciences Po |
| Occupation(s) | Historian Islamologist |
Jean-Pierre Filiu (born in Paris, 1961) is a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, an Orientalist and an Arabist.
Life and career
[edit]Before joining Sciences Po in 2006, Filiu was a career-diplomat who served as a junior officer representing France in Jordan and the US, before becoming the French Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Syria (1996–99) and in Tunisia (2002-2006). Filiu was also diplomatic adviser to the French minister of Interior (1990–91), the minister of Defense (1991–93) and the Prime Minister (2000-2002). He was one of the ten independent experts that President François Hollande designated to contribute to the 2013 White Book for National Defense and Security[citation needed].
Filiu authored or co-authored some twenty books, including "The Arab Revolution, ten lessons from the democratic uprising",.[1] He later authored "Gaza, a history" (2014, Palestine Book Award) and "From Deep State to Islamic State, the Arab counter-revolution and its jihadi legacy" (2015), "Revisiting the Arab uprisings, the politics of a revolutionary moment" (2018).
His previous research focused on the multi-faceted adaptation of Islam to globalized modernity. He described the conflicting dialectics between local and global jihad. And he highlighted how radical movements try to "modernize" traditional concepts, giving them a new meaning previously unknown in Islam, for instance in the case of the caliphate.[2] His "Apocalypse in Islam"[3] was awarded the main prize (Augustin-Thierry) by the Rendez-vous de l'Histoire, held every October in the city of Blois.
He has been visiting professor at the Columbia University (New York City, NY) and Georgetown University, invited as a guest speaker to American universities, Harvard Kennedy School (Cambridge, MA)[4] and the James Baker Institute (Houston, TX),[5] as well as think tanks.:[6]
In Dezember 2024 Filiu was permitted to travel within Gaza for one month.[7] The results of his experience were published in a book appearing in French in May 2025, and later in the same year in English translation.[8]
Other activities
[edit]Filiu has been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour,[9] BBC/The World,[10] and Al Jazeera,[11] and has been a guest to the English-speaking branch of France 24.[12] He also published five graphic novels and wrote the lyrics of two songs, one about the conflict of the Gaza strip and the latter about the Syrian civil war.
Selected publications
[edit]- Mitterrand et la Palestine, Fayard, 2005
- Les Frontières du jihad, Fayard, 2006
- L'Apocalypse dans l'Islam, Fayard, 2008 (Grand prix des Rendez-vous de l'histoire)
- Apocalypse in Islam, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2011
- Les Neuf Vies d'Al-Qaida, Fayard 2009, réédition La véritable histoire d'Al-Qaïda, Pluriel Hachette, 2011
- Les Meilleurs Ennemis - Une histoire des relations entre les États-Unis et le Moyen-Orient, avec David B., Futuropolis (roman graphique) :
- Best of Enemies: A History of US and Middle East Relations, Harry N. Abrams, 2012–
- Première partie 1783-1953, 2011 (Part One, 2012)
- Deuxième partie 1953-1984, 2014 (Part Two, 2014)
- Troisième partie 1984-2013, 2016 (Part Three, 2018)
- Best of Enemies: A History of US and Middle East Relations, Harry N. Abrams, 2012–
- La Révolution arabe : Dix leçons sur le soulèvement démocratique, Fayard, 2011 (prix Ailleurs 2012)
- The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising, Oxford University Press, 2011
- Le Printemps des Arabes, avec Cyrille Pomès, Futuropolis (roman graphique), 2013
- Histoire de Gaza, Fayard, 2015 (Palestine Book Award 2015)
- Gaza: a history, Hurst, London, 2014; second edition, 2024
- Les Arabes, leur destin et le nôtre, La Découverte, 2015 (prix Augustin-Thierry 2015)[19].
- Qui est Daech?, avec Edgar Morin, Régis Debray, Gilles Kepel, Michel Onfray, Olivier Weber, Jean-Christophe Rufin et Tahar Ben Jelloun, Philippe Rey, 2015
- La Dame de Damas, avec Cyrille Pomès (roman graphique), Futuropolis, 2015
- Le miroir de Damas, La Découverte, 2017
- (Editor, with Stéphane Lacroix) Revisiting the Arab Uprisings: The Politics of a Revolutionary Moment, Hurst & Company, 2017
- Généraux, gangsters et jihadistes : histoire de la contre-révolution arabe, La Découverte, 2018
- Main basse sur Israël : Netanyahou et la fin du rêve sioniste, La Découverte, 2019.
- Algérie, la nouvelle indépendance, Le Seuil, 2019.
- Le Milieu des mondes – Une histoire laïque du Moyen-Orient depuis 395, 384 pages, Le Seuil.
- The Middle East: A Political History from 395 to the Present, Polity, 2023
- Stupéfiant Moyen-Orient, une histoire de drogue, de pouvoir et de société, 224 pages, Le Seuil, 2023.
- Comment la Palestine fut perdue : Et pourquoi Israël n'a pas gagné. Histoire d'un conflit (XIXe – XXIe siècle), Le Seuil, 2024, 432 p. (ISBN 978-2-02-153833-5)[20].
- Un historien à Gaza, Paris, Les Arènes, 28 mai 2025, 203 p. (ISBN 1037513789)
- A Historian in Gaza. Hurst, (forthcoming November 2025)
References
[edit]- ^ Review in the Telegraph (UK)
- ^ Articles in Prospect magazine [1] and in Le Monde diplomatique [2]
- ^ Presentation in Washington, on October 29, 2008
- ^ Lecture at the Belfer Center, March 5, 2013
- ^ Lecture at the James Baker Institute, March 27, 2012
- ^ Lecture at the New America Foundation, on February 15, 2010
- ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma (12 August 2025). "Palestinian reporters killed, international reporters banned – Israel's other Gaza war is over narrative". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ Bailey, Cassidy (18 August 2025). "Hurst to publish 'searing' eyewitness account from Gaza historian Jean-Pierre Filiu". The Bookseller. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ "ABC "Around the world", January, 17, 2013". Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ and the Arab spring, March 5, 2013
- ^ "French historian: Israel destroyed 4,000-year-old culture in Gaza". Al-Jazeera. 11 January 2024.
- ^ Ramadan in revolutionary Aleppo, July 31, 2013
