Kamal Salibi was born in Beirut in 1929. After earning a doctorate in Middle Eastern history from the University of London, he returned to Lebanon to serve as the head of the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut, the same institution where he had previously studied political science. In 1994, he stepped down from this position and founded, in Jordan, at the request of Prince Hassan bin Talal - brother of King Hussein of Jordan - the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, which he chaired until 2004. He then became an advisor to the Druze Heritage Society and remained in this role until his death. This historian was one of the leading figures in the critical study of history. He shook the foundations of established certainties and challenged the official version of Arab history. Kamal Salibi passed away in 2011.