DOI article:
Scanlon, George T.; Kubiak, Władysław [Honoree]: Władysław B. Kubiak: (1925-1997)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0011
his dedication to and zest for pedagogy which has left a number of
young scholars in different fields in his debt, scholars who with his
published work constitute his enduring memory and reputation.
His revised habilitation thesis was published by the American
University in Cairo Press in 1987 as Al-Fustat: Its Foundation and
Early Urban Development. This has become his signal contribution
to Islamic Archaeology, a study which not only summates all
previous scholarship on the subject but provides entirely new
insights on the development of the early Islamic amsar or soi-
disant camp-capitals. These insights sprang not only from his
rereading of the basic Arabic sources but equally so from his field
work at the site. One cannot imagine such a volume being
superseded in the foreseeable future though he would not have
minded such a fate if the scholarship and insights of the newer
conceptions were as soundly based.
Though reasonably modest in self-conception, Prof. Kubiak
insisted on the strictest norms of textual scholarship before any
interpretation could ensue. (One feels here the stem hand of his
earliest mentor, Prof. Lewicki of the Jagiellonian University.) Even
in his occasional works one finds the same textual vigour
and fidelity. Thus one experiences an haunting loss at what his
newer lines of research, particularly on the ceramic finds at Kom el-
Dikka, would have produced. But sufficient abides for us to discern
a fine archaeologist, a dedicated teacher, a scrupulous scholar and a
mettlesome colleague. Wladyslaw Kubiak cleared a path in an
arcane subject; may his followers prove worthy of the joyful sweat
of so avid an explorer.
George T. Scanlon
Professor, Islamic Art and Architecture
Director, Fustat Expedition/ ARCE
9
young scholars in different fields in his debt, scholars who with his
published work constitute his enduring memory and reputation.
His revised habilitation thesis was published by the American
University in Cairo Press in 1987 as Al-Fustat: Its Foundation and
Early Urban Development. This has become his signal contribution
to Islamic Archaeology, a study which not only summates all
previous scholarship on the subject but provides entirely new
insights on the development of the early Islamic amsar or soi-
disant camp-capitals. These insights sprang not only from his
rereading of the basic Arabic sources but equally so from his field
work at the site. One cannot imagine such a volume being
superseded in the foreseeable future though he would not have
minded such a fate if the scholarship and insights of the newer
conceptions were as soundly based.
Though reasonably modest in self-conception, Prof. Kubiak
insisted on the strictest norms of textual scholarship before any
interpretation could ensue. (One feels here the stem hand of his
earliest mentor, Prof. Lewicki of the Jagiellonian University.) Even
in his occasional works one finds the same textual vigour
and fidelity. Thus one experiences an haunting loss at what his
newer lines of research, particularly on the ceramic finds at Kom el-
Dikka, would have produced. But sufficient abides for us to discern
a fine archaeologist, a dedicated teacher, a scrupulous scholar and a
mettlesome colleague. Wladyslaw Kubiak cleared a path in an
arcane subject; may his followers prove worthy of the joyful sweat
of so avid an explorer.
George T. Scanlon
Professor, Islamic Art and Architecture
Director, Fustat Expedition/ ARCE
9