Dr. Kamil Jamil Asali was born in Jerusalem on 09. Nov. 1925. He received his secondary and intermediate university education at Rashidiya College , Jerusalem (Matriculation 1943, Intermediate 1945).

He later joined the Jerusalem Law Classes and received his law diploma in 1951. One year before in 1950 he had obtained his B.A. degree in Literature from the University of London . In 1963 he joined the University of Humboldt in Berlin for postgraduate study. After four years he got a Ph.D. in philosophy with first class honours. His dissertation was entitled "Progressive Trends in Modern Arabic Thought". From 1968 to 1983 he was director of the Jordan University Library. During the last 15 years he has written fifteen books on the Islamic heritage of Jerusalem , and many articles and papers. In 1982 he was awarded the Prize of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.

Dr. Asali died in Amman on 26.Oct. 1995, leaving a wife, Farida, three sons, Jamil, Karim and Ala ', and one daughter, May.