Philip K. Hitti

Philip Khuri Hitti (; 22 June 1886 – 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly created the discipline of Arabic studies in the United States. His grandniece was Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster in January 1986. Provided by Wikipedia