by Tawfiq al-Hakim

Born in Alexandria in 1902 to an Egyptian father and a Turkish mother, Tawfiq al- Hakim completed his secondary education in Cairo, where he was able to indulge his passion for novels and the theater. He obtained his law degree in 1925 and then traveled to Paris to study for a doctorate. In 1927 he returned to Egypt, became a civil servant in the office of the Public Prosecutor in Alexandria, and was posted to numerous villages in the provinces. Literature was al-Hakim’s true vocation, however. Upon his return to Egypt he embarked on a parallel, prolific career as a playwright, novelist, and essayist. Al-Hakim is internationally acclaimed as the founder of modern Arabic drama. Among his novels, The Return of the Spirit (1933) is considered a literary masterpiece and influenced a whole generation of nationalist intellectuals, including the leader of the...