 yw'r pryddechrau, y bydd gweithio, gweithio a'r cyllidau. Mae'r fyddion hynny, oherwydd mae'n gweithio i gynnig yn fwy o'r ysgrifennu, yn eich fflaen i'ch ffordd o'r twyd y gyfnodau sydd wedi bod gweithio'r ddiweddol ar gyfer gweithgen, ond mae'n gweithio'r gweithio i'r ysgrifennu! Aeth i'n gweithio i gweithio i gyd. Yn o'r gweithio ar y gallwn gwahodd, mae'n gweithio ar ystafell ychydig mewn cyfathur can honour exceptional women and men who have made major contributions to the various fields of study we do here, but have struck out an independent course rejecting the conventional career path enabling their imaginations and writing to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. Robert Irwin is an outstanding example of such unusual scholars. He was a student of history at Oxford, but this was in the 1960s when all sorts of alternative worlds were opening up. Robert developed a keen interest in Sufism, and this led him to a Sufi convent in Mustigarnum, Algeria, during his summer vacations. His recent book, Memoirs of a Dervish, records this period and the gentle but intense spirituality of the community which he found himself in. It's a minor classic, well worth reading for anyone interested in what Sufism actually means in real lives. After Oxford he moved as anyone interested in the culture and history of the Middle East should, to Zawas, and he began work on the history of the Mamluq rulers of late medieval Egypt. Nowadays the study of the Mamluqs is an academic industry with its own institutes and journals, but back in the 1970s it was a little visited backwater. Zawas then, as now, was alive with new and challenging ideas. Bernard Lewis was perhaps the leading historian of the day, while Michael Cook and Patricia Croner were subverting the whole basis of our understanding of Islamic history. In this heady environment Robert did the hard research which resulted in a pioneering history of the period, and perhaps more remarkably a novel, the first of seven he has written called The Arabian Nightmare, which draws on his deep knowledge of Arabic literature of the medieval literature of Egypt to create an imaginative and intensely atmospheric thriller. These early works were simply the beginning of a train of publications which would have been a credit to a most distinguished professor in an established university. There is no time to list all his works, but perhaps two themes in his writing should be highlighted. The first is his work on the famous Arabian Nights. Until Robert started working on the nights, it's fair to say they were regarded with a certain snooty disdain by critics, both Arab and Western as frivolous and hardly worthy of serious examination. It is no exaggeration to say that Robert's work has transformed this, applying narrative theory, comparative literature perspectives and a historical understanding of the evolution of this vast collection of tales. His book, The Arabian Nights, a Companion, inaugurated the serious study of the subject. And there was more than that. Robert persuaded the brilliant but reclusive Cambridge Arabist Malcolm Lyons to produce a new translation of the nights. Gone was the wordy, bowdlerised 19th century stuff to be replaced by a simple, clear, unpretentious modern version, which makes his great classic accessible to everyone. He followed this by numerous publications on the illustrations of the nights in the Western tradition, the latest of which is a beautifully illustrated book on Salvador Dali's work on the subject published earlier this year. Secondly, Robert has continued to produce top quality academic articles and has fiercely entered the most hard fought of modern controversies about approaching the study of the Middle East, the response to Edward Said's Orientalism. It's fair to say that Robert is not a Said fan. And his book For Lust of Knowing, The Orientalists and Their Enemies, Clever, Witty, Thoroughly Grounded in Scholarship is the work that I and many others point to when they introduce this debate to their students. There are many other aspects to this portfolio of activities. For example, his long running role as Middle Eastern editor of the Times Literary Supplement has ensured that the study of the area at all levels has been well represented in the national debate. He has contributed tirelessly to public discussion on radio at the London Review of Books and elsewhere on the cultures and histories of the Islamic world, bringing with him both erudition and a lively and entertaining debating style. But I really want to sum this up by saying that we are honoring a great scholar and a great humanist, a public intellectual who has explored boldly and independently an original unique path. That's what makes him so deserving of the honour we're giving him today. It is now my privilege to present Robert Irwin for the degree of Doctor of Literature on Oris Kazer and to invite him to address the assembly.