Taha Hussein

Taha Hussein was born in Izbet el Kilo, a village in the Minya Governorate in central Upper Egypt.[1] He was the seventh of thirteen children of lower-middle-class parents.[1] He contracted ophthalmia at the age of two, and, as the result of faulty treatment by an unskilled practitioner, he became blind.[6][7] After attending a kuttab, he studied religion and Arabic literature at El Azhar University; but from an early age, he was dissatisfied with the traditional education system.

When the secular Cairo University was founded in 1908, he was keen to be admitted, and despite being poor and blind, he won a place. In 1914, he received a PhD for his thesis on the sceptic poet and philosopher Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri.[6]

Taha Hussein left for Montpellier, enrolled in its university, attended courses in literature, history, French and Latin. He studied formal writing but he was not able to take full advantage of it as he "may be used to taking knowledge with his ears, not with his fingers."[8]

He was summoned to return to Egypt due to the poor conditions at the University of Cairo; but three months later, those conditions improved, and Taha Hussein returned to France.[8]

After obtaining his MA from the University of Montpellier, Hussein continued his studies at the Sorbonne. He hired Suzanne Bresseau (1895–1989) to read to him, and subsequently married her.[7][8] In 1917 the Sorbonne awarded Hussein a second PhD, this time for his dissertation on the Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun, who is widely regarded as the founder of modern sociology.

Taha Hussein with President Habib Bourguiba, Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur and Mohamed Abdelaziz Djaït (Al-Zaytuna Mosque, 1957)

In 1919 Hussein returned to Egypt with Suzanne, and he was appointed professor of history at Cairo University.[7] He went on to become a professor of Arabic literature and of Semitic languages.[9]

At the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, Taha Hussein was made responsible for the completion of Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (The Great Dictionary), one of the academy's most important tasks.[9] He also served as president of the academy.[10]

He was a member of several scientific academies in Egypt and internationally.

His book of literary criticism On Pre-Islamic Poetry (في الشعر الجاهلي) of 1926 that bought him some fame in the Arab world.[11] In this book, he expressed doubt about the authenticity of much early Arabic poetry, claiming it to have been falsified during ancient times due to tribal pride and rivalry between tribes. He also hinted indirectly that the Qur'an should not be taken as an objective source of history.[6] Consequently, the book aroused the intense anger and hostility of the religious scholars at Al Azhar and many other traditionalists, and he was accused of having insulted Islam. However, the public prosecutor stated that what Taha Hussein had said was the opinion of an academic researcher and no legal action was taken against him, although he lost his post at Cairo University in 1931. His book was banned but was re-published the next year with slight modifications under the title On Pre-Islamic Literature (1927).[6]

He was the founding Rector of the University of Alexandria.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser awarding Taha Hussein the National Honors Prize in Literature (Cairo, 1959)

Taha Hussein was an intellectual of the Egyptian Renaissance and a proponent of the ideology of Egyptian nationalism as an Arab nation within the Arab world, arguing in a series of public letters against the Pharaonist Tawfiq al-Hakim that Arab identity is integral to Egyptian identity.[12]

In 1950, he was appointed Minister of Education, in which capacity he led a call for free education and the right of everyone to be educated.[7] He also transformed many of the Quranic schools into primary schools and converted a number of high schools into colleges such as the Graduate Schools of Medicine and Agriculture. He is also credited with establishing a number of new universities and he was the head of the Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Education Ibrāhīm al-Ibyārī.[9] Hussein proposed that Al Azhar University should be closed down in 1955 after his tenure as education minister ended.[13]

Taha Hussein held the position of chief editor of a number of newspapers.

In the West he is best known for his autobiography, Al-Ayyam (الأيام, The Days) which was published in English as An Egyptian Childhood (1932) and The Stream of Days (1943).

The author of "more than sixty books (including six novels) and 1,300 articles",[14] his major works include:[15]

• The Memory of Abu al-Ala' al-Ma'arri 1915
• Selected Poetical Texts of the Greek Drama 1924
• Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy 1925
• Dramas by a Group of the Most Famous French Writers 1924
• Pioneers of Thoughts 1925
• Wednesday Talk 1925
• On Pre-Islamic Poetry 1926
• In the Summer 1933
• The Days, 3 Volumes, 1926–1967
• Hafez and Shawki 1933
• The Prophet's Life "Ala Hamesh El Sira" 1933
• Curlew's Prayers 1934
• From a Distance 1935
• Adeeb 1935
• The Literary Life in the Arabian Peninsula 1935
• Together with Abi El Alaa in his Prison 1935
• Poetry and Prose 1936
• Bewitched Palace 1937
• Together with El Motanabi 1937
• The Future of Culture in Egypt 1938
• Moments 1942
• The Voice of Paris 1943
• Sheherzad's Dreams 1943
• Tree of Misery 1944
• Paradise of Thorn 1945
• Chapters on Literature and Criticism 1945
• The Voice of Abu El Alaa 1945
• Osman "The first Part of the Greater Sedition
• Al-Fitna al-Kubra ("The Great Upheaval") 1947
• Spring Journey 1948
• The Stream Of Days 1948
• The Tortured of Modern Conscience 1949
• The Divine Promise "El Wa'd El Haq" 1950
• The Paradise of Animals 1950
• The Lost Love 1951
• From There 1952
• Varieties 1952
• In The Midst 1952
• Ali and His Sons (The 2nd Part of the Greater Sedition) 1953
• (Sharh Lozoum Mala Yalzm, Abu El Alaa) 1955
• Anatagonism and Reform 1955
• The Sufferers: Stories and Polemics (Published in Arabic in 1955), Translated by Mona El-Zayyat (1993), Published by The American University in Cairo, ISBN 9774242998
• Criticism and Reform 1956
• Our Contemporary Literature 1958
• Mirror of Islam 1959
• Summer Nonsense 1959
• On the Western Drama 1959
• Talks 1959
• Al-Shaikhan (Abu Bakr and Omar Ibn al-Khattab) 1960
• From Summer Nonsense to Winter Seriousness 1961
• Reflections 1965
• Beyond the River 1975
• Words 1976
• Tradition and Renovation 1978
• Books and Author 1980
• From the Other Shore 1980

On November 14, 2010, Google celebrated Hussein's 121st birthday with a Google Doodle.[16]

• Taha Hussein Museum – Historic house and biographical museum in Cairo
• List of Egyptian authors