Maher Charif

Maher Charif (Arabic: ماهر الشريف, transliterated Mahir ash-Sharif) is a Palestinian Marxist historian specialising in modern Arab intellectual history and the history of Arab political movements. He is working as a lecturer and researcher on medieval, modern, and Arab history at the French Near East Institute in Syria.

Charif is a Palestinian refugee born in Damascus, Syria to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He has been a member of the Central Committee of the Palestinian People's Party, and is a commentator on politics and society in Arab newspapers.

His works include: Al-bahth 'an kiyan (The Search for an Entity), on the ideological evolution of Palestinian political movements Filastin fi-l-arshif as-sirri li-l-komintern (Palestine in the Secret Archive of the Comintern) Rihanat an-nahda fi-l-fikr al-'arabi (The Stakes of the Nahda in Arab Thought) Tayar al-islah ad-dini wa-masa'irihi fi-l-mujtama'at il-'arabiyya (The Religious Reformist Current and its Future in Arab Societies) conference papers, co-edited with Salam al-Kawakibi. Tatawwur mafhoum al-jihad fi-l-fikr al-islami (The Development of the Concept of Jihad in Islamic Thought)