Philip K. Hitti

Philip Khuri Hitti (Arabic: فيليب خوري حتي; 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.^[1]^[2] His grandniece was the now deceased NASA astronaut and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.^[3]

^ Cook, Joan (28 December 1978). "PHILIP HITTI, EXPERT ON ARABIC CULTURE". The New York Times. Mr. Hitti, who was the first director of Princeton's Near Eastern Studies program, was considered a leading authority in the United States on Arabic and Islamic culture and one of the first persons in any American university to appreciate and promote the importance of the Arab world in this country.
^ "Saudi Aramco World : A Talk With Philip Hitti". archive.aramcoworld.com. History of the Arabs, first published in 1937 and now going into its tenth edition, is probably the single most important book ever published in America on the subject of Arabs. "There is no comparable book on the subject," an Arab historian in Beirut said recently. "On the Arabs alone, nothing in the West since 1937 has matched Hitti's contribution."
^ Lazkani, Souad (13 February 2021). "The U.S. Honors Late Astronaut With Lebanese Descent". the961.com. 961™. Her maternal grandfather was of Lebanese Maronite descent and she was the great-niece of the renowned Lebanese-American historian and Harvard professor Philip Hitti.