Taha Hussein

Taha Hussein (November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a figurehead for the Arab Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Arab world. His sobriquet was "The Dean of Arabic Literature".
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-one times.
Early life
Taha Hussein was born in Izbet el Kilo, a village in the Minya Governorate in central Upper Egypt. He was the seventh of thirteen children of lower-middle-class parents. He contracted ophthalmia at the age of two, and, as the result of faulty treatment by an unskilled practitioner, he became blind. 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.
Taha Hussein in France
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."
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.
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. 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.
Academic career
In 1919 Hussein returned to Egypt with Suzanne, and he was appointed professor of history at Cairo University. He went on to become a professor of Arabic literature and of Semitic languages.
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. He also served as president of the academy.
He was a member of several scientific academies in Egypt and internationally.
His book of literary criticism On Pre-Islamic Poetry of 1926 that bought him some fame in the Arab world. 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. 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).
He was the founding Rector of the University of Alexandria.
Political career
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.
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. 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 . Hussein proposed that Al Azhar University should be closed down in 1955 after his tenure as education minister ended.
Taha Hussein held the position of chief editor of a number of newspapers.
Works
In the West he is best known for his autobiography, Al-Ayyam (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", his major works include:
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,
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
Translations
Jules Simon's The Duty 1920–1921
Athenians System (Nezam al-Ethnien) 1921
The Spirit of Pedagogy 1921
Dramatic Tales 1924
Andromaque (Racine) 1935
From the Greek Dramatic Literature (Sophocle) 1939
Voltaire's Zadig or (The Fate) 1947
André Gide: From Greek
Legends' Heroes
Sophocle-Oedipe
Tribute
On November 14, 2010, Google celebrated Hussein's 121st birthday with a Google Doodle.
Honours
See also
Taha Hussein Museum – Historic house and biographical museum in Cairo
List of Egyptian authors
References
1889 births
1973 deaths
Egyptian blind people
Al-Azhar University alumni
Nahda
Egyptian novelists
Cairo University alumni
Critics of Arab nationalism
Egyptian nationalists
Blind writers
Blind scholars and academics
University of Montpellier alumni
University of Paris alumni
Egyptian translators
20th-century Egyptian historians
Academic staff of Cairo University
Recipients of the National Order of the Cedar
Pharaonism
People from Minya Governorate
Egyptian liberalists
20th-century translators
Egyptian magazine founders
Egyptian philosophers
Presidents of Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo