Leonard Patrick Harvey
British historian
Leonard Patrick Harvey (often credited L. P. Harvey, 25 February 1929 – 4 August 2018) was a British historian and professor. He held lectureships in Spanish at Oxford University (1956–58), Southampton (1958–60), and Queen Mary College, London (1960–63), was Head of the Spanish Department at Queen Mary College from 1963 to 1973 (being appointed Professor in 1967) and Cervantes Professor of Spanish at King's College, London, in 1983, until his retirement in 1990.
Biography
His fields of academic specialization were Arabic and Islamic studies, Mudejars and Moriscos, and the Islamic heritage on Spanish medieval and modern Literature. After his retirement, he took up a visiting appointment at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, until he decided to move to New Zealand, where he lived in retirement. He died in Wellington on 4 August 2018. His wife Maureen Harvey (née Rawcliffe) died in 2000.
Works
He published works over different themes: Islamic Spain 1250–1500, aljamiado literature, Muslims in Spain 1500–1614. Among the authors he wrote on are Ibn Battuta, Cervantes, Mancebo de Arévalo, and Baray de Reminjo. Some biographic sketch and his bibliographic production can be found in the volume dedicated to him in the review Sharq al-Andalus, 16–17 (1999–2002) – especially in the bibliographic article by Luis Fernando Bernabé Pons (pp. 13–20).
The public source identifies “Leonard Patrick Harvey” as british historian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Leonard, Patrick and Harvey.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Leonard Patrick Harvey”, the useful work is to connect “british historian” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q28793974. VIAF identifies the subject as 14819956. The Library of Congress control number is n50027814. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2018, 1956 and 1958.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Leonard Patrick Harvey”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Leonard Patrick Harvey primary sources, Leonard Patrick Harvey archive and Leonard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leonard Patrick Harvey”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Leonard Patrick Harvey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.