'Understanding the Other From-Within': The Muslim Near East in the Eyes of Duncan Black Macdonald

Mention Hartford Seminary in the State of Connecticut to academicians and scholars in America--and perhaps around the world--and the first thing likely to come to mind today is the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations. This center's legacy as a pioneering center for studying Islam in a U. S. Christian theological seminary stems not only from the fact that, when the center was established in 1973, Hartford Seminary had already been offering programs for the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations for some eighty years; and not only from the fact that this is now a core area-of-study defining its scholarly mission. More importantly, the significance of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center stems from the legacy of the scholar, teacher and author, in whose name the center was founded.