Illyas Shufani

Elias Shoufani (; 1932–26 January 2013) was a Palestinian author and historian whose studies were mostly about the history of Islam and the Israeli affairs. He was one of the leading Arab scholars in the latter topic. His father, Shukri, was a community leader in Mi'ilya which was a Christian Arab village. The Israeli soldiers killed Nimr, the dog of the family, who was trying to protect the house.

Shoufani graduated from the Teachers' Institute in Jaffa in 1949. In the latter he worked as an associate professor of history. He left his teaching post and settled in Beirut in 1972. He became a member of the Fatah's Revolutionary Council in 1980. He published books and articles on the history of the Middle East and Palestine. One of his books is Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia (1973) which was an extended version of his PhD thesis. He translated Mudhakkirāt Simsār Arāḍı̄ Ṣuhyūnı̄ (Arabic: Memoirs of a Zionist land broker) in 2010.

Personal life and death Shoufani was married to an American woman, and they divorced before he left the US. They had two daughters.

Shoufani died of a heart attack in Damascus on 26 January 2013.

Legacy His daughter, Hind Shoufani, produced a documentary, Trip Along Exodus, in memory of Elias Shoufani. It was premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2014.