Renaissance man: Professor emeritus Charles Issawi remembered
Throughout his lifetime, near eastern studies professor emeritus Charles Issawi's colorful pursuits and passions made him the portrait of a true Renaissance man.By the age of five, Issawi spoke three languages ? English, French and Arabic ? and devoured English literature at his boarding school in Alexandria, Egypt.Later in his life, Issawi memorized entire pages of Shakespearean plays and romantic poetry and recited his favorite verses aloud during long walks in New York, where he taught economics at Columbia University.Even after retiring from Princeton ? where he taught from 1975 to 1986 ? the talented researcher of Middle Eastern economics and history published seven books, including his 1999 autobiography "Growing up Different: Memoirs of a Middle East Scholar.""He was a man of wide culture and civilization," said near eastern studies professor Abraham Udovitch, who served as the department's chair during Issawi's Princeton career."He was imbued with his own culture and devoted to it, but he didn't find any contradiction between that and being a man of the world," Udovitch said.Issawi ? born in Egypt to parents of Lebanese, Syrian and Greek ancestry ? died Dec.