Item of Interest
December 4, 2005

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Braibanti: A Man for All Seasons
Michael Saba, [email protected] 

Nov. 24 was Thanksgiving Day in the United States. On that day, a truly great man passed away. Anyone who knew him or worked with him could certainly give thanks for that privilege. Dr. Ralph Braibanti was truly a man for all seasons.

Braibanti grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. He was the grandson of Polish and Italian immigrants who immigrated to Danbury at the turn of the 19th century to find work in the hat manufacturing business. Braibanti�s father managed hat factories in the Danbury area during the middle of the 20th century.

Braibanti earned his undergraduate degree at Connecticut State University and went on to receive his Master�s and doctoral degrees at Syracuse University. He served in the US Army during World War ll and in the occupation of Japan. He was trained to speak Japanese and spent two years as a military government officer in Japan. This service became a lifelong point of pride and he often said that this experience in Japan was the wellspring for his academic interest in the relationship between culture, religion and �good governance.�

He began his teaching career at Syracuse University in 1947. In 1949, he accepted a teaching appointment at Kenyon College and stayed there until moving to Duke University in 1953 where he remained until his retirement in 1990. While at Duke, he did teaching and extensive research on Western-Islamic relations and he began his often-praised Pakistan program in 1957. He received Duke�s highest and most respected academic honor, a James B. Duke professorship, in 1968.

While at Duke, Braibanti became a legend for his classroom teaching. He received many academic and student awards for his teaching skills and he was noted as one who encouraged and respected a diversity of viewpoints. He directed the extraordinary number of 39 doctoral dissertations and wrote or contributed to 19 books. He was also a frequent contributor to numerous journals, writing essays, book reviews and newspaper articles.

Braibanti was a member of numerous editorial boards, among them the Journal of Pakistan Studies and the Journal of Arab Affairs. He was the founding president of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies which he headed for nine years. His work on Pakistan-American relations helped to nourish strong bonds between the US and Pakistan. Braibanti wrote a biography of a the late A.R. Cornelius, a Pakistani Roman Catholic who, as chief justice of Pakistan administered a legal code derived from Islam. In Cornelius, Braibanti saw a shining example of how two cultures might be bridged.

Braibanti spent much of his academic life teaching, researching and founding institutions dedicated to the further understanding of Islam. He established the Islamic and Arabian Development Studies Center at Duke University, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States in 1977 with the support of 20 US and multinational corporations and the government of Saudi Arabia. He was personally responsible for the donation of over 6,000 books on Islamic subjects to the Duke Perkins Library.

He had a lifelong devotion to his former students, many of whom went on to important positions in government and academia. Those former students include the Saudis Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy, minister of Haj; Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Nafisa, minister-counselor, and Dr. Othman Al-Rawaf, King Saud University professor of Political Science and member of the Shoura Council.

Braibanti was a man of firm convictions. �He became a very strong advocate of the university�s relationship with Saudi Arabia,� said Ole Holsti, an emeritus professor of political science at Duke. �He was not a shrinking violet. Anyone who had interactions with him had no difficulty discerning what his views were.�

�He was someone who clearly was taking the university in some new directions,� said US Rep. David Price, a former Duke political science professor who joined the department in 1973.

A close Saudi watcher, Braibanti advocated that the diplomacy of Saudi Arabia has had a moderating effect on the Muslim world. He has likened Saudi diplomacy as �quiet as the sand dunes of the Rub Al Khali, which move relentlessly but silently � driven only by the whispering of the desert winds.�

Braibanti termed the secret meeting between King Abdul Aziz and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a �diplomatic triumph for both sides� and said that this set the standard for the conduct of Saudi foreign policy which was conducted by successive rulers of the Kingdom including Kings Saud, Faisal, Khaled, Fahd and Abdullah.

This standard, concluded Braibanti, has been �marked by moderation, conciliation and goodwill, in the best Islamic tradition, but also capable of iron-willed determination as was shown in the Arab oil embargo of 1973.�

Braibanti stayed intellectually active until his final days. He served as professor emeritus at the Duke University Department of Political Science. He published a book of post-World War l poems by his father-in-law, Charles Henry Kauffman, and organized a coalition of his neighbors to promote the esthetic renaissance of his beloved Hope Valley Durham, North Carolina community. When Friends of Saudi Arabia, an American nonprofit people-to people organization was formed earlier this year, Braibanti signed on as a charter member and advisory board consultant stating, �I have been a friend of Saudi Arabia as long as I can remember and I will do anything that I can to help that friendship grow and flourish.�

Haj Minister Farsy commented on the meaning of his former professor�s life: �He was a great teacher and scholar who passed knowledge to all the young minds that he touched. But above all he was a great humanitarian and he was able, wherever he went, to see the common thread of humanity rather than the differences. I loved him so dearly. He was my great mentor and friend. We will all miss him dearly. My sincere condolences to his wife, Mrs. Lucy Braibanti, and all of his family.�

Source: Arab News
Reprinted with permission

Michael Saba is Executive Director of Friends of Saudi Arabia, a non-profit entity dedicated to establishing goodwill and friendship between the people of Saudi Arabia and people of other countries and cultures.
http://www.fsaus.org/

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Ralph Braibanti, Expert on Islamic-Western Relations, Dies
Political scientist helped make Duke a leader in the field
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/12/braibanti.html 

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