HIU Community Mourns Passing of Emeritus Professor Yahya Michot, Highly Regarded Scholar

The HIU community mourns the passing of Dr. Yahya Michot, 73, who had served as Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from 2008 until retiring in 2018. Upon his retirement, he was given the title of Emeritus Professor of Islamic Thought and Christian-Muslim Relations. Only a select number of professors hold that distinction.

Dr. Michot also served as a co-editor of The Muslim World journal, which was founded in 1911 and has been

 edited at Hartford Seminary since 1938. The journal, which reaches subscribers in 65 countries, is dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of scholarly research on Islam and Muslim societies and on historical and current aspects of Christian-Muslim relations.

While at HIU, Dr. Michot became interested in two particular aspects of the institution: its special collection of Arabian Nights manuscripts and the pioneering professor, Duncan Black Macdonald, who collected many of them. The Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations is named after Duncan Black Macdonald, who taught at then Hartford Theological Seminary from 1892 to 1942. Dr. Michot's lectures on both subjects were universally praised and well-attended.

Many students, alums, and faculty members had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Michot and his wife Louise in their home for meals, conversation, poetry and camaraderie. 

HIU President Joel N. Lohr had warm memories of Dr. Michot.

"Professor Michot was not only a model scholar and teacher, who pushed his students to excellence, but he was also someone who made us think, smile, and laugh, as we did around our dinner table," he said. "The world mourns today for a man who gave so much to the academy, to the world, and especially to Hartford. May he not be forgotten. And may God uphold his family, especially Louise."

Dr. Michot was internationally recognized as a specialist of both the Iranian philosopher Avicenna (d. 1037) and the Syrian theologian-mufti Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). He has also explored the influence of Avicenna on later Sunnism and English thought, that of Ibn Taymiyya on pre-Wahhâbi Ottoman puritanism and modern Islamism.

Born in Belgium, Dr. Michot taught Arabic philosophy, language, history, and literature in Louvain (Belgium) from 1983 to 1997. From 1998 to 2008, he taught Islamic theology and Arabic at the University of Oxford (UK). 

He has published numerous books and articles about Islamic classical thought, drugs in Muslim societies, and Islam in the West, including IBN SÎNÂ. Lettre au vizir Abû Sa‘d (Arabic edition & translation, 2000), AVICENNE. Réfutation de l’astrologie (Arabic edition & translation, 2006), Ibn Taymiyya: Muslims under non-Muslim Rule (2006), Ahmad al-Aqhisârî: Against Smoking. An Ottoman Manifesto (Arabic edition & translation, 2010), Musulmans en Europe (2002), and the chapter “Revelation” in the “Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology” (2008).

Dr. Michot has served as a consultant to various universities, international organizations, and official bodies in the UK. From 1995 to 1998, he was president of the Higher Council of Muslims in Belgium.

Dr. David D. Grafton, Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, said Dr. Michot was a "gift to us all."

"Yahya was an incredible colleague and a wonderful friend," he said. "I cherish the memories of gathering with students at his and Louise's house for food and fellowship. His home was as much his classroom as his favorite room in the Budd Building, where I often heard him wax eloquent about Islamic coins and calligraphy."

Dr. Michot is survived by his wife Louise, his children, Khalil and Aysha, his son-in-law Johnson and his grandson Malik.

On Friday, April 4, the Janazah will be held at the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford (Berlin Mosque) after Friday prayer, which begins at 1 p.m. Burial will follow in Cheshire at The Gardens of Peace.

Donations in honor and memory of Dr. Michot can be made to World Central Kitchen for Gazans.