astronomy

Hisham Khatib

Hisham Khatib is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hisham Khatib rather than just read about it. In short: Hisham Khatib (Arabic: "هشام الخطيب") (5 January 1936 – 31 May 2022) was a Jordanian politician and civil servant. He modernized and expanded the Jordanian and Palestinian electrical power capabilities during his service in the sector.

Key takeaways

Hisham Khatib belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hisham Khatib to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hisham Khatib from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hisham Khatib (Arabic: "هشام الخطيب") (5 January 1936 – 31 May 2022) was a Jordanian politician and civil servant. He modernized and expanded the Jordanian and Palestinian electrical power capabilities during his service in the sector. He was the first Minister of Power and Mineral Resources in Jordan and Chairman of the Power Commission. During his later years, he served as a member of the Jordanian Senate. Being of Palestinian origin and having spent much of his youth in Jerusalem, he developed a passion for the art and history of Palestine and the Holy Land. This developed into an interest in the region's 18th and 19th-century art and history. He spent considerable time collecting art, books, and artifacts relating to that era. He has also written many books on the topic, including his collection.

Early life Hisham Khatib was born in January 1936 in Acre at the house of his maternal grandfather, Sheikh Musa Al Tabari. His father Sheikh Mohammad Hashem Khatib was a judge. The family moved to Hebron for 1 year in 1941, then to Tulkarem in 1943 where they lived until 1945. They then moved again to Nablus where they lived until 1949 when his father was appointed as the Qadi (Judge) of Nablus. In 1949 the family moved to Jerusalem where his father was appointed to the Moslem Sharia Appeal Court of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, Khatib attended El Rashadyia School headed by Tawfiq Abu Saud, then did his final year of schooling in Egypt in 1953 at El Nahrareh School.

Education After graduating from school, Dr. Khatib enrolled at the Engineering School of Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1954 where he studied Electrical Engineering, finally receiving his BSc in 1959, the first of many degrees. In 1960 he won a scholarship to spend a two-year post-graduate apprenticeship in the UK. The apprenticeship did not live up to his ambitions, and he seized the opportunity to leave it and join a twelve-month M.Sc. course on electrical machines at the University of Birmingham. He completed his MSc in 1962 and returned to Jerusalem. After some time in the industry, he enrolled with Queen Mary University of London, UK to attain his two final degrees, a B.Sc. in Economics, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, for which he had to take a sabbatical leave from work. He finally received his Ph.D. in 1974.

Early career Upon returning to Jerusalem in 1959, after receiving his first B.Sc., he accepted an engineering position at the Jordan Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JJDEC). After completing his M.Sc. course, and continuing in his previous position for 4 years, he was appointed as Chief Engineer at JJDEC in 1966.

Later career In 1974, after receiving his Ph.D., he moved to Jordan where he worked as Deputy Director-General of the Jordan Electricity Authority. In 1976 he joined the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development based in Kuwait as an Energy Expert. He returned to Jordan in 1980 to reclaim his position as the Director-General of the Jordan Electricity Authority. And was then also appointed as chairman of the board for the Jordan South Cement Company in 1982. In 1984, Dr. Khatib was appointed as the first Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jordan where he served until 1989. He then served as the Minister of Water and Irrigation from 1993 until 1994. Then, he served as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation from 1994 to 1995. In 2005 he was appointed as the first Chairman of the Energy and Minerals Commission where he served until 2009. He was appointed to the 27th Jordanian Senate where he served from September 2016 to September 2020. He was a member of the Chairman of the Energy and mineral resources committee; Member of the Finance and Economics Committee; Member of the Palestine Committee. He was appointed as chairman of the board of trustees for the Al-Balqaʼ Applied University in 2019 until he finally retired in 2021. In between careers, he had a private consulting practice where he was contracted by numerous international agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and many others.

International Memberships and Affiliations Dr. Khatib was very active internationally and a member of many committees and agencies all over the world, known for his diversified expertise in various fields of Engineering, Economics and Art. Dr. Khatib was a member of the following committees and agencies:

Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the UK Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the USA International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) in the USA Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) Association for the Study of Travellers to Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) Vice Chairman and then Honorary Vice Chairman, of the World Energy Council (WEC) and World Energy Award Winner 2007 World Federation of Scientific Workers Darat Al Funun Honorary Board

Family Hisham had three sisters Aida, Maha, and Ghada Khatib, of whom he is the oldest. In 1970, he married Maha Daher Al-Khatib. He and Maha had three children: Mohammad, born in 1972, Lynn, born in 1975, and Isam, born in 1979. Mohammad married Ruwaida Share in 2004, and they had three sons; Hisham, Zaid, and Kareem. Isam married Dima Bilbaisi in 2006, and they had the children Jeeda, Kinan, and Naya.

Art collection Dr. Khatib was a philanthropist of the arts and heritage, supporting many local and international organizations, including Darat al Funun, Tiraz Centre, and the Palestine Exploration Fund. Over 60 years, he personally collected an extensive collection of art from all over MENA (Middle East and North Africa), especially the Holy Land (Jerusalem), containing a variety of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, paintings, Qurans, and many others. Using this collection, Hisham was able to preserve the Arab and Palestinian cultural heritage and knowledge for the coming generations, publishing 7 books on his collection, including:

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hisham Khatib

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hisham Khatib claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hisham Khatib before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hisham Khatib ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hisham Khatib

In research: Hisham Khatib appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hisham Khatib in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hisham Khatib is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2022 deaths, Ain Shams University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hisham Khatib outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hisham Khatib in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hisham Khatib means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hisham Khatib out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hisham Khatib in simple terms?

Why does Hisham Khatib matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hisham Khatib?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hisham Khatib.