Taha Hussein

Who was Taha Hussein?

Taha Hussein (Arabic: طه حسين, romanized: Ṭāhā Ḥusayn, Egyptian Arabic: [ˈtˤɑːhɑ ħ(e)ˈseːn]; November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was among the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a leading figure of the Arab Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Arab world. Taha Hussein was born in Izbet el Kilo, a village in the Minya Governorate in central Upper Egypt. 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. His sobriquet was "The Dean of Arabic Literature" (Arabic: عميد الأدب العربي, romanized: ʿAmīd al-Adab al-ʿArabī). He was the seventh of thirteen children of lower middle class Muslim parents.

He contracted ophthalmia at the age of two, and became blind as a result of malpractice by an unskilled physician.

Historical significance

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-one times. Taha Hussein was among the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a leading figure of the Arab Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Arab world.