by Taha Husayn

Born in 'Izbat al-Kilu, a small village in upper Egypt, Taha Husayn (1889-1973) moved to Cairo in 1902 at the age of 13 to study at al-Azhar University, the oldest and most prestigious center of religious learning in the Islamic world. Husayn (also spelled Hussein) would ultimately switch to secular studies, earning two doctorates and becoming one of the forces shaping the cultural domain of Egypt, doing so through his many publications and his weekly newspaper column of 1922-25. In 1926 Husayn questioned the authenticity of the classical pre-Islamic poetry of the Arabs and called down upon himself a storm of protest. He was dismissed from his post as dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Egyptian University in 1932 and was also denied any form of government employment. He survived this controversy to be reinstated in 1936, and later to serve as minister of...