Maxime Rodinson

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Maxime Rodinson
Rodinson in 1970
Born	(1915-01-26)26 January 1915 Paris, France
Died	23 May 2004(2004-05-23) (aged 89) Marseille, France
Academic work
Discipline	History oriental studies sociology
School or tradition	Marxism
Institutions	École pratique des hautes études
Main interests	Islam
Notable works	Muhammad (1961) Islam and Capitalism (1966)

Maxime Rodinson (French pronunciation: [ʁɔdɛ̃sɔ̃]; 26 January 1915 – 23 May 2004) was a French historian and sociologist. Ideologically a Marxist, Rodinson was a prominent authority in oriental studies. He was the son of a Russian-Polish clothing trader and his wife, who both were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After studying oriental languages, he became a professor of Ge'ez at the École pratique des hautes études. He was the author of a body of work, including the book Muhammad, a biography of the prophet of Islam.

Rodinson joined the French Communist Party in 1937 for "moral reasons"^{[citation needed]} but was expelled in 1958 after criticizing it. He became well known in France when he expressed sharp criticism of Israel, particularly opposing the settlement policies of the Jewish state. Some credit him with coining the term Islamic fascism (le fascisme islamique) in 1979, which he used to describe the Iranian Revolution.