The Spanish Arabist Pedro Martínez Montávez passes away
The prestigious Spanish Arabist Pedro Martínez Montávez has died. The intellectual was also the first democratic rector of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, an academic centre where he was professor emeritus due to his great recognition and career.
After graduating in Philology, he was director of the Hispanic Cultural Centre (now the Cervantes Institute) in Cairo between 1958 and 1962 and, at the same time, director of the Spanish Section in the Faculty of Languages at the Cairo University of Ayn Shams. He received his PhD in Semitic Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he taught from 1962 to 1969. He obtained the chair of History of Islam at the University of Seville, where he taught from 1970 to 1971, and then moved to the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he was professor, vice-dean and rector, as well as director of the Department of Arabic and Islam and of the Institute of Oriental and African Studies. He was awarded honorary doctorates from three universities: Jaén, Alicante and Granada.
Recibimos consternados la noticia del fallecimiento de D. Pedro Martínez Montávez. Figura del arabismo español y profesor emérito de la @UAM_Madrid, se especializó en pensamiento y literatura árabe contemporáneas. Desde @Casaarabe transmitimos nuestro pesar a familiares y amigos. pic.twitter.com/JMwOWeqWpB
— Casa Árabe (@Casaarabe) February 14, 2023
His work has focused on the field of contemporary Arabic thought and literature, a field in which he has been a forerunner within Spanish Arabism, which until then had been more centred on the study of the Andalusian legacy and Arabic as a classical language. Pedro Martínez Montávez has been crucial in making contemporary authors such as Naguib Mahfuz, Nizar Qabbani, Mahmud Darwish, Fadwa Tuqán, Saadi Yusuf, Salah Abd al-Sabur, Yubrán, al-Sayyab, al-Bayati, Adonís and many others known to the Spanish-speaking public.
His works include: Contemporary Arab Poetry (1958); Arab Love Poems, an anthology by Nizar Qabbani (1965); Palestinian Poets of Resistance (1974); Introduction to Modern Arab Literature (1974, 1994); Profile of Hispano-Arabic Cadiz (1974); Marginal Essays in Arabism (1977); Explorations in Neo-Arabic Literature (1977); The Poem is Filistin. Palestine in Contemporary Arabic Poetry (Anthology, 1980); Introduction to Modern Arabic Literature (1985); The Arabs and the Mediterranean (1999); Arabic Literature Today (1987); The Challenge of Islam (1997); Al-Andalus, Spain, in Modern Arabic Literature (1992); Arab World and the Turn of the Century (2004); Western Pretensions, Arab Shortcomings (2008); Meaning and Symbol of Al-Andalus (2011).
Con una profunda tristeza nos despedimos hoy de Pedro Martínez Montávez, primer rector democrático de la UAM y uno de los más prestigiosos arabistas contemporáneos. Enviamos un abrazo a su familia, compañeros y amigos en nombre de toda la comunidad universitaria. DEP pic.twitter.com/PKWWxvqvJF
— UAM Autónoma Madrid (@UAM_Madrid) February 14, 2023
Throughout his career he has been a member of many scientific and cultural committees and has contributed to various media. He was a member of the Arabic Language Academy of Amman and has been president of the Association of Friends of the Palestinian People, the Association of Hispanic-Arab Friendship, the Spanish Association of Arab Studies and honorary member of the Hispanic-Arab Intercultural Circle. He has also been a member of the Advisory Council of Casa Árabe.
Martínez Montávez has received several awards and prizes, including the Prize for Solidarity with the Arab World awarded by the Association of Arab Journalists in Spain, the Prize of the Hispano-Palestinian Association "Jerusalem" and the Sheikh Zayed Prize as Cultural Personality of the Year in 2008. The Arabist has also received the "Gold Medal of Andalusia", awarded by the Andalusian Regional Government. In 2014 he was awarded by the Palestinian Writers Union.
He has been a Favourite Son of Jódar since 1983 by unanimous agreement of the Town Council. His native street, the old Vistahermosa, has been named after him since 1987, as well as the Aula Magna of the "Juan López Morillas" Secondary School in Jódar. Thanks to the "Saudar" Cultural Association, his trajectory was known by his countrymen, being the first local entity to pay him a highly recognised homage by naming him "Member of Honour" of the same in 1983.
