Abdul-Karim Gharaybeh
# Abdul-Karim Gharaybeh

Abdul-Karim Mahmud Gharaybeh (20 June 1923 – 22 February 2014) was a Jordanian historian, academic and politician.

## Early life

Gharaybeh was born in Irbid on 20 June 1923. He started studying medicine but after his first anatomy lesson changed his major to history. In 1950 he earned his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He was one of the first Jordanians to earn a PhD.

## Career

In 1956 he was the first Jordanian to be named Director General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. He succeeded Gerald Lankester Harding, who had headed the department between 1939 and 1956. Gharaybeh was himself succeeded by Saeed al-Durrah the same year he was appointed. He was a professor of history at the University of Jordan between 1962 and 1997.

Gharaybeh was appointed senator in the twenty-first Senate of Jordan, serving from 17 November 2005 until 28 November 2007.

In October 2007 he was one of the 138 Muslim signatories of the open letter A Common Word Between Us and You to Christian leaders calling for peace between the Muslim and Christian communities.

Gharaybeh, aged 90, died on 22 February 2014.

## Works

* English Traders in Syria 1744-1791. University of London, 1950
