Hussein al-Amin passes away

Al-Amin had been severely ill for a while Baghdad- Jaafar Al Nasrawi The man known as 'the master of Iraqi historians,' Dr Hussein al-Amin, has passed away in the Jordanian capital Amman. He had been ill for a few months. Mazen Kassem al-Shamsi, a former pupil of al-Amin and current researcher at a Baghdad University heritage centre, told Arabstoday that the leading historian died on Sunday morning at Amman's Khalidiya Hospital. The Iraqi Cabinet Office stated  the government had instructed the ministry of transport to fly the body of the deceased back to Iraq for burial in Baghdad on Monday. And that the late historian's remains will be received formally at Baghdad International Airport. Born in 1952 in Mahallet al-Toub, Baghdad, Hussein Amin Abdul Majid al-Makdissi initially studied to become a primary school teacher. He later enrolled at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, where he completed a Master's degree in 1958. Al-Amin became the university's first successful Arab doctoral candidate and received an award of merit from late Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. His articles and papers were widely published by Arab and Iraqi periodicals. And his books on history covered topics relating to Iraq and the Arab world in general. He diversified his career gaining fame for his TV presence in 1960’s as the host of Thaqafat al-Usbu (The Week in Culture): a programme concerned with culture and history. Al-Amin later became the Iraqi Historical Society's first Secretary-General in 1969, before being appointed the first Secretary-General of the Society of Arab Historians in 1974. In 1987 al-Amin was the first Iraqi to run the Arab League's Historical Studies department at the Institute for Arab Research and Studies. He was also the first Editor-in-Chief of al-Majalla al-Tarikhiya (The Historical Magazine) established in 1969.