Returning to his Cairo hotel room after a day of meetings, Ze'ev Brinner overheard the front desk clerks talking about him. Based on his accent, they debated whether Brinner was Syrian or Lebanese.
Little did they realize their guest was an Ashkenazi Jew from California who spoke Arabic like a native.
When it came to Middle East scholarship, William "Ze'ev" Brinner had few equals. He was a towering figure in the field, chairing U.C. Berkeley's Depart-ment of Near Eastern Studies, founding Cal's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, lecturing at top universities and championing Zionism throughout his life.
Brinner died Feb. 3 in Berkeley after a long illness. He was 86.
"He was incredibly knowledgeable," said Fred Astren, chair of Jewish studies at San Francisco State University and one of Brinner's former students. "Not only in language and literature, but history and culture, from antiquity to current events."
Added son Benjamin Brinner, "He was fairly rare in that he bridged both Islamic studies and Jewish studies."
While academia was his métier, Brinner also took part in Jewish affairs and the Bay Area Jewish community. He played an instrumental role in the founding of the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, belonged to AIPAC and routinely spoke at Bay Area Jewish gatherings.
For Astren, there was nobody better.
"He was the best orator anyone ever heard," Astren recalled. "When he taught a class or had a public speaking event, he held the audience in the palm of his hand."
Born in Alameda in 1924 to Hungarian immigrants, Brinner grew up in an Orthodox home in San Francisco, though by his teens he belonged to Hashomer Hatzair, a socialist Zionist youth group.
After World War II (during which he worked in a Navy shipyard), he earned a master's in Hebrew from U.C. Berkeley, then moved to Israel in 1950.
Because he was so thin, Brinner was not accepted for enlistment in the nascent Israeli army, and instead was sent back to his kibbutz to gain weight. Skinny or not, he romanced Lisa Kraus, a Vienna-born survivor of the Kindertransport. The two fell in love, marrying in 1951.
The couple moved to Berkeley, where Brinner completed his Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies. From 1952 until his retirement in 1991, he taught at U.C. Berkeley, punctuated by visiting professorships at Harvard, Tel Aviv University, UCLA, and many more.
Carol Redmount, U.C. Berkeley's current chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, said Brinner "is widely credited for building the department into what it is today. The department is a testament to his vision and creativity."
In 1966 he founded the Cairo-based Center for Arabic Study Abroad. Benjamin Brinner recalled living with his parents and two siblings in Cairo for a few months while his father was on sabbatical, and hosting a Passover seder. In Egypt.
Brinner was a renowned Arabic translator, having put into English several volumes of classical Arabic literature. In 1986 he helped rescue 60,000 volumes of Jewish texts from a crumbling Cairo yeshiva.
One of his other passions proved more contemporary. Brinner worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between Arabs and Jews. He counted as close friends many Arab scholars, who understood Brinner's Zionist ties.
After retiring, Brinner continued his public speaking engagements, as well as his scholarly research. He spoke out for Israel every chance he could. Yet his expertise on the region meant he had a nuanced view of the Mideast conflict.
"He was very much a supporter of Israel," Benjamin Brinner said, "but he was very concerned that people really know what happened in the past, and not work with stereotypes."
For those who valued his work or studied with him, Brinner's contributions to Middle East scholarship are everlasting. "He was my mentor," Astren said.
William "Ze'ev" Brinner is survived by his wife, Lisa Brinner of Berkeley; sons Benjamin Brinner of Berkeley and Rafael Brinner of Oakland; daughter Leyla Sulema of Ramat HaSharon, Israel; sister Claire Krauthammer of Las Vegas; and eight grandchildren.
The family suggests that memorial gifts be made to the U.C. Berkeley Foundation for the William "Ze'ev" Brinner Memorial Fund to support graduate research in the areas in which he worked.