Abdulkareem Khalefah

Abdulkareem Khalefah Al-Nsour^[2] (عبد الكريم خليفة, born in 1924 - died on 17 August 2020) was a Jordanian professor of Arabic literature, former president of the Jordanian Academy of the Arabic Language, and former president of the University of Jordan. He has dozens of books in the Arabic library on language and literature.

Abdulkareem Khalefah
عبد الكريم خليفة
Khalefah in 1968
President of the Jordan Academy of Arabic[1]
In office 1976–2015
Succeeded by	Khaled Al-Karaki
2 President of the University of Jordan
In office 1968–1971
Preceded by	Nasir al-Din al-Asad
Succeeded by	Abdelsalam Majali
Personal details
Born	Abdul Karim Khalifa Al-Nsour 1924 As-Salt, Jordan
Died	August 17 2020(2020-00-00) (aged 95–96)
Awards	Order of Independence Excellent Education Medal Order of Al-Hussein for Distinguished Contributions Order of the Star of Jordan

Early life and education

Abdulkareem Khalefah was born in the city of As-Salt, the capital of Balqa in western Jordan, in 1924.^[3] He memorized the Quran up to Surah "Ya-Sin" at the Kuttab (traditional school), where he also learned to read, write, and acquire basic arithmetic skills. He then enrolled in a government school that provided both primary and secondary education, obtaining his Jordanian General Secondary Certificate in 1942. He was sent on a scholarship to Baghdad to specialize in Arabic language and literature, earning a bachelor's degree in Arabic language and literature with honors from the Higher Teachers' Institute in 1946. He later traveled at his own expense to Paris, where he earned a Doctorate in Letters with high honors from Sorbonne University in 1954.^[4]

Career

His professional experience was comprehensive in the field of education; he worked as a teacher at Al-Tafilah Primary School in Jordan (1942–1943). After returning from Baghdad, he taught Arabic language and literature at the Fourth Preparatory School in Aleppo (1946–1947), then taught the principles of general and specific teaching methods for Arabic language at Aleppo (1947–1950). He also taught the principles of general and specific teaching methods for Arabic language at the Teachers' Institute in Aleppo under a contract with the Syrian government.

After obtaining his doctorate and returning from Paris, he worked as an inspector for Arabic language and literature at the Ministry of Education in Jordan in Amman (1956–1963).^[5] When the University of Jordan was established in Amman, he became an assistant professor (later promoted to associate professor) in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Faculty of Arts in 1963.^[3]

He rose through the ranks and became the president of the University of Jordan from 1968 to 1971. He chaired the Jordan Academy of Arabic from its founding in 1976^[6] in a non-full-time capacity, and then full-time from 1994. He was also a member of the Jordanian Arabization, Translation, and Publication Committee since its establishment in 1961, and participated in all Arabization conferences as well as a number of scientific conferences and workshops across the Arab world. Khalifa published a large number of articles,^[7] books, and scientific research, with his first publication appearing in 1949.

Awards

He received several honors, including:

• Order of Independence in 1971
• Excellent Education Medal in 1978
• Order of Al-Hussein for Distinguished Contributions, First Class in 2000.
• Order of the Star of Jordan, First Class in 2015^[8]

Death

He died on Monday, 17 August 2020, at the age of 95–96.^[9]