Fouad Ajami, acclaimed scholar, writer and one of the world's most prominent Middle East historians, died on Sunday aged 68 after battling cancer, Stanford University said.
Ajami, a Shiite Muslim, was born in 1945 in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States in 1963.
Ajami taught at Princeton and American University, and served as director of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University for more than three decades.
The author of some 400 essays on Arab and Islamic politics, US foreign policy and contemporary international history, Ajami was heavily criticized by the Arab world after supporting the American invasion to Iraq in 2003.
Ajami was also a familiar face on American television news, including CNN, where he frequently discussed Middle East issues.
"He was a great intellect and was full of grace and compassion," CNN anchor Anderson Cooper wrote on Twitter. "He was a wonderful scholar and a lovely human being."
The Wall Street Journal said: "Perhaps in part because he was an immigrant, Fouad was also more optimistic about American purposes than most of his academic colleagues. He supported the war in Iraq and refused to abandon the effort even when it would have been advantageous for his career. He appreciated American idealism even as he saw it run up against the cynical realities of the Arab world and radical Islam."
His books included "The Arab Predicament," "Beirut: City of Regrets," "The Dream Palace of the Arabs" and "The Foreigner's Gift."