Taha Hussein Ali bin Salama (1306 AH / November 15, 1889 - 1393 AH / October 28, 1973 AD), his fame is "Taha Hussein", an Egyptian writer and critic, nicknamed the Dean of Arabic Literature. He is considered one of the most prominent figures in the modern Arab literary movement. Taha Hussein's ideas and positions are still controversial today.
He studied at Al-Azhar, then joined the National University when it opened in 1908, and obtained a doctorate in 1914, then was sent to France to complete his studies. He returned to Egypt to work as a professor of history and then as a professor of the Arabic language. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, then Director of Alexandria University, then Minister of Education. Among his most famous books are: On Pre-Islamic Poetry (1926) and The Future of Culture in Egypt (1938).
His birth and upbringing
Taha Hussein Ali bin Salama was born on Friday, November 15, 1889, and was the thirteenth of his father Hussein’s seventeen sons, and the fifteenth of his brothers, in the village of Kilo near Magagha, a city in the Minya Governorate in Upper Egypt. Years until they were struck by conjunctivitis, which extinguished the light in them forever; This is due to ignorance and his family’s failure to bring the doctor, but rather they summoned the barber, who prescribed him a treatment that went with his sight, and his father, Hussein Ali, was a small, gentle employee in the sugar company. His father brought him the village book of Sheikh Muhammad Jad Al-Rub to learn Arabic, arithmetic, recite the Holy Qur’an and memorize it in a short period that amazed his teacher, relatives and father, who used to accompany him sometimes to attend the dhikr circles, and to listen to the stories of Antara bin Shaddad and Abu Zaid Al-Hilali.
Teach him
Taha Hussein entered the Al-Azhar Mosque for religious studies and an increase in Arab sciences in 1902, where he obtained what was available from culture, and obtained his certificate that allowed him to specialize in the university, but he was fed up with it, so the four years he spent there, and this is what he himself mentioned, as if Forty years in view of the monotony of the study, the sterility of the curriculum, the lack of development of professors and sheikhs, and methods and methods of teaching.
When the Egyptian University opened its doors in 1908, Taha Hussein was the first to join it. He studied modern sciences, Islamic civilization, history and geography, and a number of oriental languages such as Abyssinian, Hebrew and Syriac. During that era, he frequented Al-Azhar's lessons and participated in its linguistic, religious and Islamic seminars. And he worked on this work until 1914, the year in which he obtained his doctorate, and the subject of the thesis is: “The Memory of Abu Al-Ala,” which caused an uproar in religious circles, and in the Egyptian Parliament symposium, when a member of Parliament accused him of blasphemy, heresy and violating the principles of the true religion. Orders were issued by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar to the Examining Committee not to grant Taha Hussein an international degree, whatever the circumstances. And if the author of “Al-Ayyam” was prevented from obtaining the degree of universality in Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, then he attained the highest scientific degree at the university, by obtaining a doctorate, and thus he became a “university” man instead of a “universal” man. Failing him in the mosque was the greatest incentive towards impressive success in the university.
In the same year, that is, in 1914, the Egyptian University sent him to Montpellier, France, to pursue specialization and increase in the branches of knowledge and modern sciences. He studied at its French University, literature, psychology and modern history. He remained there until 1915, the year of his return to Egypt, where he stayed for about three months, during which he provoked various battles and rivalries, the major axis between teaching Al-Azhar and teaching Western universities, which led the officials to take a decision to deprive him of the scholarship given to him to cover the expenses of his studies abroad, but the Sultan intervened Hussein Kamel prevented the implementation of this decision, so he returned to France again to pursue his educational attainment, but in the capital, Paris, he studied at its university various scientific trends in sociology, Greek and Roman history and modern history, during which he prepared his second doctoral thesis entitled: “The Social Philosophy of Ibn Khaldun.” And that was in 1918, in addition to completing a postgraduate diploma in Romanian law, and succeeding in it with distinction. During those years, he had married Suzanne Bresso, a French-Swiss national, who helped him learn more and more about the French and Latin languages, thus enabling him to learn Western culture to a large extent.
This lady had a great impact on his life, so she played the role of a reader for him and read many references to him, and provided him with books written in Braille to help him read on his own, as she was the wife and friend who always pushed him forward, and Taha Hussein loved her very much, and what he said about her is that “Since he heard her voice, his heart has not known pain.” Taha Hussein had two sons: Amina and Munis.
his teachers
The first teacher of Taha Hussein was Sheikh Muhammad Gad Al-Rub, who taught him the principles of reading, writing, arithmetic, and the recitation of the Noble Qur’an in the book that he administered in Magghagha in Ezbet El Kleo.
He received knowledge at Al-Azhar University from a number of professors and sheikhs, among whom were the most prominent: Sayed Al-Marsafi, Sheikh Mustafa Al-Maraghi, Sheikh Muhammad Bakhit, Sheikh Atta, and Sheikh Muhammad Abdo. .
Taha was taught at the Egyptian University by Ahmed Zaki in the lessons of Islamic civilization, Ahmed Kamal Pasha in the ancient Egyptian civilization, and the orientalist Gweidi in history and geography. As for astronomy, he studied under Carlo Alfonso Nellino, in ancient Semitic languages on the orientalist Littmann, in Islamic philosophy on David Santlana, in the history of ancient oriental civilization on Meloni, philosophy on Massignon, and French literature on Clement.
At the University of Paris, he studied Greek history on Glotus, Roman history on Block, modern history on Signopus, and sociology on Emile Durkheim. This and Boglier supervised his thesis on Ibn Khaldun's social philosophy with the participation of Block Casanova.
return to Egypt
When Taha Hussein returned to Egypt in 1919, he was appointed professor of Greek and Roman history at the Egyptian University, which was a private university. only one day; He submitted his resignation from this position under the influence of the moral and moral pressure exerted on him by the Wafdites, the opponents of the Constitutional Liberals, among whom was Taha Hussein.
In 1930, Taha Hussein was returned to the Deanship of Arts, but because the university granted an honorary doctorate to a number of prominent political figures such as Abdel Aziz Fahmy, Tawfiq Refaat, and Ali Maher Pasha, Taha Hussein refused this job, so the Minister of Education issued a decree transferring him to the Ministry of Education, but he refused. The brigadier general assumed his new position, forcing the government to retire him in 1932.
After Taha Hussein retired, he went to work as a journalist and supervised the editing of “Kawkab al-Sharq” which was published by Hafez Awad. He soon resigned from his job due to a dispute between him and the owner of the newspaper, so he bought the franchise of “Al-Wadi Newspaper” and began to supervise its editing, but this He did not like the work, so he left journalism for a while, this was in 1934.
In the same year, 1934, Taha Hussein was returned to the Egyptian University as a professor of literature, and then as dean of the Faculty of Arts starting in 1936. Because of his disagreement with the government of Muhammad Mahmoud, he resigned from the deanship to go to teach in the same faculty until 1942, the year he was appointed Director of the University of Alexandria In addition to his other work as a technical advisor to the Ministry of Education, and an observer of culture in the same ministry. In 1944 he left the university after being referred to retirement.
In 1950, and the ruling was in the hands of the Wafd Party, a decree was issued appointing him as Minister of Education, and he remained in this position until 1952, the date of the establishment of the Wafdist government, after he was awarded the title of Pashawi in 1951, and after directing all his care to the University of Alexandria, and served as head of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo And a member of many international academies, and a member of the Higher Council of Arts and Letters.
In 1959, Taha Hussein returned to the university as a part-time professor. He also returned to journalism and became the editor-in-chief of the republic until
Positions and awards
During that era, and in the years that followed, Taha Hussein assumed various responsibilities, and won various positions and awards, including representing Egypt at the Conference on Islamic Christian Civilization in Florence, Italy in 1960, his election as a member of the Indian-Egyptian Cultural Council, and supervision of the Institute of Higher Arab Studies, and his selection arbitrator member of the Italian and Swiss Literary Commission; It is an international body similar to the Swedish body that awards the Buzan Prize. The Egyptian government nominated him for the Nobel Prize, and in 1964 the University of Algiers awarded him an honorary doctorate, and the University of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, in 1965. In the same year, Taha Hussein won the Nile necklace, in addition to the presidency of the Academy of the Arabic Language, and in 1968 the University of Madrid awarded him a degree An honorary doctorate, and in 1971 he headed the Council of the Federation of Linguistic Associations in the Arab World, and was nominated again for the Nobel Prize. Taha Hussein also held the position of Minister of Education in Egypt.
his death
Taha Hussein died on Sunday, October 28, 1973 AD, at the age of 84.
:Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad said that he
"A bold-minded man, born of defiance and defiance."
Thus, he was able to transfer the cultural movement between the ancient and the modern from his narrow circle, which he was in, to a much broader and more welcoming level.
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