Then came graduation. I had been put in touch with Fr. Pat Cummins,
S.J. by some friends, and finally started to think about joining
the Jesuits. There had always been a tendency towards the priesthood
in the back of my mind. Then some notions in the ethics course
struck me and brought it all forward. I applied and was accepted.
In September 1948 I was driven up the Shadowbrook with my family,
and said tearful good byes. The first few weeks were hard, and
I was on the point of leaving. But then came a purifying moment-no
vision, unfortunately, just extreme emotion-and I decided to stay.
Everything was easy after that.
Why did I choose Baghdad? Well, in the novitiate I met Stanley
Marrow, and asked him to teach me the Arabic alphabet. Although
I never got much further than the alphabet, still Baghdad appeared
more attractive than Jamaica. There was also a vague connection
my mother had through an Iraqi Bridge Club organized by Daddy
McDermott, a Jesuit in Worcester. Hard to tell. At Shadowbrook
the breezy dormitory in winter had me thinking of Alaska as a
possibility, but it was really not a choice in 1953, so off I
went to Baghdad.
I chose a period no one was interested in-the tenth century, when
an Iranian Shiite dynasty took over what is now Iraq and Iran
for a full century. Because they were neither Arab nor Sunni,
they were not interesting for most Arab scholars. The period was
referred to as an "Iranian Intermezzo." I finished in
1966, and was so fed up with study I took off early for Baghdad,
not waiting for the Harvard graduation. I see now that was a bit
silly, because my mother would have enjoyed the ceremony. But
writing a thesis does strange things to you. For two years while
doing that I met only two people, besides the thesis director,
who had the slightest interest in what I was doing.
As I mentioned earlier, I stopped teaching in 2001 and turned
to writing. Besides my thesis I also published a volume of Islamic
texts with John Esposito in 1982 and a revised edition in 2007
entitled, Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives, published
by Oxford University Press. I also collaborated with a member
of the German Oriental Institute Beirut, Mrs. Leslie Tramontini,
in putting out a two volume work on contemporary Arab authors.
It is an updated English version of the Arabic volumes published
by Bob Campbell, S.J.
