:Taha Hussein

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 became blind as a result of malpractice by an unskilled physician.{{cite book|first=Roger|last=Allen|title=The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of its Genres and Criticism|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=0-521-48525-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mP27WzY7KSMC|page=398|access-date=March 22, 2023|archive-date=May 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515232927/https://books.google.com/books?id=mP27WzY7KSMC|url-status=live}}{{cite encyclopedia|last=Paniconi|first=Maria|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam|title=Ḥusayn, Ṭāhā|access-date=18 June 2021|edition=3rd|year=2017|publisher=Brill Publishers|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/husayn-taha-COM_30584|volume=2017–3|isbn=9789004335721|url-access=subscription|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624201008/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/husayn-taha-COM_30584|url-status=live}} 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 left for Montpellier, enrolled in its university, attended courses in literature, history, French and Latin. He had 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."{{Cite book|title=دار المعرفة طه حسين عودته إلى الديار الفرنسية|year=2014|location=Morocco|pages=133}}

He was summoned to return to Egypt due to the poor conditions at then 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 University. 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 regarded as one of the founders of sociology.

File:الزعيم الحبيب بورقيبة والدكتور طه حسين.jpg, 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. 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.{{Cite journal |last=von Grunebaum |first=G. E. |date=1959 |title=Review of Al-Muʿjam al-kabīr, Murad Kāmil, Ibrāhīm al-Ibyārī |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/543279 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=157–159 |doi=10.1086/371525 |jstor=543279 |issn=0022-2968 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327023711/https://www.jstor.org/stable/543279 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} He also served as president of the academy.{{Cite web |title=مجمع اللغة العربية! |url=https://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2533552.aspx |access-date=2021-03-31 |website=بوابة الأهرام |archive-date=April 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402175221/https://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2533552.aspx |url-status=live }}

Taha Hussein was a member of several scientific academies in Egypt and internationally. He was also the founding Rector of the University of Alexandria.

A work of literary criticism, On Pre-Islamic Poetry ({{lang|ar|في الشعر الجاهلي}}), published in 1926, brought him fame and some notoriety in the Arab world.{{cite news|last1=Labib Rizk|first1=Dr Yunan|title=A Diwan of contemporary life (391)|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2001/535/chrncls.htm|access-date=1 May 2018|work=Ahram Weekly|archive-date=September 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918164708/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2001/535/chrncls.htm|url-status=live}} In this book, Hussein expressed doubt about the authenticity of much early Arabic poetry, claiming it to have been falsified during ancient times due to tribal pride and inter-tribal rivalries. 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 religious scholars at Al Azhar as well as other traditionalists, and he was accused of having insulted Islam. The public prosecutor stated, however, that what Taha Hussein had said was the opinion of an academic researcher; 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).

File:Nasser and Taha Hussein, Nov 19 1959.JPG awarding Taha Hussein the National Honors Prize in Literature (Cairo, 1959)]]

Taha Hussein was an intellectual of a modern Egyptian renaissance in the early to mid 20th century and a proponent of the ideology of Egyptian nationalism. Although famed as the Dean of Arabic Literature, Taha Hussein was an Egyptian nationalist who rejected pan-Arabism. In his book The Future of Culture in Egypt, published in 1936, Hussein stated that "For Egyptians, Arabic is virtually a foreign language; nobody speaks it at home, school, in the streets, or in clubs. [...] People everywhere speak a language that is not Arabic, despite the partial resemblance to it." Taha Hussein, the Future of Culture in Egypt, 1936 In opposition to the Pan-Arabists, Hussein asserted that most Egyptians were descendants of the Ancient Egyptians and did not possess any Arab blood, and that Arabic as a daily language in Egypt should not determine the fate of a nation.{{cite journal |last=Setiyono |first=Mozes Adiguna |title=From Pan-Arabism to Pharaonism: Egypt's Gradual Change of National Identity during the Sisi Era |journal=Global Strategis |volume=17 |issue=2 |year=2023|page=312}}

Hussein criticized the lack of freedom in Nazi Germany, writing "They live like a society of insects. They must behave like ants in an anthill or like bees in a hive." Hussein urged the Egyptian government to reject neutrality and fight the Germans in the war.{{Cite news |last=البحراوي |first=إبراهيم |date=2007-10-09 |title=لماذا خالف طه حسين الملك فاروق في التحالف مع هتلر؟ |url=https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/2121787 |work=Al-Masry Al-Youm}}

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. In addition, he is 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.{{cite journal

|author=Malika Zeghal|title=Religion and Politics in Egypt: The Ulema of al-Azhar, Radical Islam, and the State (1952–94)|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=1999|volume=31|issue=3|page=376

|doi=10.1017/S0020743800055483|s2cid=33718066 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800055483|url-access=subscription}}

In the West he is best known for his autobiography, Al-Ayyam ({{lang|ar|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",P. Cachia in Julie Scott Meisami & Paul Starkey, Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Volume 1, Taylor & Francis (1998), p. 297 his major works include:{{cite web|url=http://www.frcu.eun.eg/www/scieland/taha/taha.html |title=SCIENCE\taha|access-date=2006-12-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041210204602/http://www.frcu.eun.eg/www/scieland/taha/taha.html |archive-date=2004-12-10 }}

• 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

• 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 (Sophocles) 1939
• Voltaire's Zadig or (The Fate) 1947
• André Gide: From Greek
• Legends' Heroes
• Sophocle-Oedipe

On November 14, 2010, Google celebrated Hussein's 121st birthday with a Google Doodle.{{cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/birthday-of-taha-hussein/|title=Birthday of Taha Hussein|website=Google|date=14 November 2010|access-date=November 16, 2019|archive-date=November 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116064323/http://www.google.com/doodles/birthday-of-taha-hussein|url-status=live}}

• Taha Hussein Museum – Historic house and biographical museum in Cairo
• List of Egyptian authors
• [https://www.arabworldbooks.com/ar/authors/taha-hussein His page at arabworldbooks.com]
• [https://www.hindawi.org/contributors/59624258/ His complete works at hindawi.org] (in Arabic)

{{wikiquote}}

{{commons}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Egyptian writers}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussein, Taha}}

Category:1889 births

Category:1973 deaths

Category:Egyptian blind people

Category:Al-Azhar University alumni

Category:Nahda

Category:Egyptian novelists

Category:Cairo University alumni

Category:Critics of Arab nationalism

Category:Egyptian nationalists

Category:Blind writers

Category:Blind scholars and academics

Category:University of Montpellier alumni

Category:University of Paris alumni

Category:20th-century Egyptian historians

Category:Academic staff of Cairo University

Category:Grand Cordons of the National Order of the Cedar

Category:Pharaonism

Category:People from Minya Governorate

Category:Egyptian liberalists

Category:20th-century Egyptian translators

Category:Egyptian magazine founders

Category:20th-century Egyptian philosophers

Category:Presidents of Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo

Category:Anti-fascists