Nazih Nassif Mikhail Ayubi, political scientist and Middle East scholar, was born in Cairo in 1944 where he held his first academic posts before taking an Oxford Doctorate and a Professorship at Cairo University. After four years as a Professor at the University of California Los Angeles, he came to the University of Exeter in 1983. He played a key role in the development of Middle East studies at the University, and was also a member of the Politics Department. His research interests included Egyptian politics, political economy, international relations and the international politics of Islam. He was also a Fellow at the University of Manchester and at the European Institute, Florence. He died in 1995.
