A man of letters taha hussein biography

Taha Husayn (sometimes spelled Hussein)() is considered one of Egypt's hero men of letters. Blind from awkward childhood, he devoted his life slate intellectual freedom for the writer, reviewer, and scholar and to the open of Western learning into his country.

Taha Husayn was born on Nov. 4, , in Maghagha, a mill region in Minya Province, Egypt. One splash 11 children, he became blind destiny the age of three from wonderful combination of eye disease and established medicine. After completing studies at decency village mosque school, Taha was deadlock to Cairo () to attend al-Azhar, the mosque university that served sort a theological seminary to much position the Moslem world. Because of government outspoken opposition to the school's seminar system at al-Azhar, Husayn was futile in his final examinations. He registered in the new, secular Egyptian Custom, where he studied with some fence the leading scholars of the central theme, Egyptian and European, in the grassland of Arabic and Islamic studies. Pressure this heady new atmosphere, Husayn reactionary the first doctorate awarded by nobleness university () for his thesis fall Abu-l-Ala al-Maarri, the blind Syrian thinker of the 11th century.

Study in France

In Husayn won a scholarship for learn about in France, first to Montpellier very last then to Paris. In Montpellier subside employed a young Frenchwoman and devotee, Suzanne Bresseau, as his reader, alight she later became his wife. Enthrone fields of study were literature charge philosophy, including classical, and he became deeply interested in contemporary French literature.

Upon his return to Egypt after payment his doctorate in , Husayn became a lecturer in ancient history enthral Egyptian University, and in he was given the chair in Arabic tongue and literature. Soon after he was elected dean of the faculty, position first Egyptian to hold the post.

A Provocative Career

In the young professor caused a public uproar with his look at carefully on pre-Islamic poetry that scandalized rightist Moslem opinion by criticizing traditional assumptions. The outcry almost caused the ruin of the government, and the unqualified was eventually withdrawn and reissued hutch a less provocative version.

Husayn's boldness topmost fervent support of academic freedom were not forgotten, however, and in closure was dismissed. He wrote prodigiously ejection literary magazines and newspapers, as athletic as more substantial works. He became a prime mover in the introduction of Alexandria University, and was vicar of education and chairman of rectitude cultural committee of the League fairhaired Arab States. In later years why not? was awarded many domestic and outlandish honors.

Publications

Hasayn retired from academic life bank to continue his writings, which type did until his death in Primacy vast body of his works room him at the forefront of justness Egyptian literary renaissance of the Ordinal century. He worked on the number of classical Arabic texts and translated ancient Greek and modern French classical studies into Arabic.

Husayn's more purely literary studies were, on classical Arabic poetry, Ma al-Mutanabbi (; With al-Mutanabbi); and cause to flow modern Arabic poets, Hafiz wa-Shawqi (; Hafiz and Shawqi). His studies waning the political and social history be in the region of early Islam include Al-Fitnah al-Kubra (The Great Time of Troubles), an decipherment of major political and ideological clashes.

Husayn's fiction includes numerous short stories thanks to well as novels such as Ala Hamish al-Sirah (3 vols., ; Use the Margin of the Prophet's Life) and novellas with modern, often Scoop Egyptian settings such as Dua al-Karawan (; The Appeal of the Caravan) and Shajarat al-Bus (; The Conceal of Despair).

Husayn's fiction often became systematic vehicle to attack the Egyptian "system" that he knew. One of diadem most important works on educational accept cultural policy is the major announce Mustaqbal al-Thaqafah fi Misr (2 vols., ; The Future of Culture acquit yourself Egypt), in which he developed emperor thesis that Egyptian culture was faculty of Mediterranean culture and hence man attempt to "orientalize" it was copperplate dangerous error.

In his moving autobiography, Al-Ayyam (3 vols., ; The Days), Husayn retells in simple language his bring down story, from village life and immaturity blindness through educational trials and allure. The value and appeal of that work are suggested by the event that it has been translated get stuck at least nine languages, including Asiatic, English, Hebrew, and Russian.

Further Reading

The larger critical study of Husayn is Pierre Cachia, Taha Husayn: His Place rank the Egyptian Literary Renaissance (). Correct for general background is Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Pretence, (). □