Person

Hussein, Taha

• طه حسين
• Ṭāhā Ḥusayn
• Taha Husain

1889-1953

Taha Hussein was an Egyptian writer, nicknamed the “Dean of Arabic Literature.” He was born in Maghāghah, Egypt, in 1889. Coming from a lower middle-class family, he became blind at the age of three owing to maltreatment by an unskilled practitioner. This dramatic incident and its consequence marked his life and influenced his work. For instance, he chose an Egyptian peasant as the main character of one of his novels (Du'â' al-Karawân, Curlew's Prayers, 1934), and his Al-mu‘azzabūn fi-l ardh (The Tortured of Modern Conscience, 1949) deals with the life of the lowly.

Hussein learnt the Koran by heart and became a Hafiz. At the age of thirteen he quit his home town to study in Cairo, first at the religious Al-Azhar University then at Cairo University founded by King Fuad I in 1908. In 1914 he received a public scholarship to study in France. He passed his examinations at Montpellier, where he learned French, Greek and Latin. Afterwards he studied at the Sorbonne and graduated in 1919 with a thesis on the social philosophy of Ibn Khaldoun. Upon his return to Egypt he was appointed professor at the University of Cairo.

In 1927 he published his autobiography, translated as An Egyptian Childhood in 1932. In 1931 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at Cairo University. Hussein was also founding Rector of the University of Alexandria. Between 1950 and 1952, he served as Education Minister and introduced free primary education as well as general reform of the education system. Afterwards, he returned to his literary and journalistic career and became President of the Academy of Arab language. He died in Cairo in 1973.

His commitment to education was also reflected in Hussein’s commitment to the Organisation of Intellectual Cooperation (OIC) of the League of Nations (LN). He played a vital role in the formation of the Egyptian Committee on Intellectual Cooperation which was founded in June 1937. He participated at the second general conference of national committees, held in Geneva in July 1937, where he presented a report on intellectual cooperation in the Arab world. He also contributed to the activities of the International Conference on Higher Education, organised by the IIIC in July 1937. In his capacity as a writer he also took part in the interviews organised by the Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters, published as “Le Destin prochain des lettres” (1938), in which he described the situation of literary men in the Orient, particularly in Egypt. Hussein was elected a member of the ICIC in 1939.

Created by Marie Caillot 31/10/2011. English translation by Jan Stöckmann 11-08-2015.

• UNESCO Archives, Archival Group 1 : Box 26. IICI. A. III. 39. Egypte. Commission nationale égyptienne. (1927-1945). 3 documents concernant Taha Hussein, dont une lettre manuscrite de l'écrivain, adressée à Henri Bonnet et datée du 12 juin 1937, au sujet de la création de la Commission égyptienne de Coopération intellectuelle (1 page).
• UNESCO Archives, Archival Group 1 : IICI/2/8. IICI, Le Destin prochain des lettres. Paris : IICI, 1938. P. 159-161.
• UNESCO Archives, Archival Group 1 : IICI/11/6. Problèmes d'université. Travaux de la Conférence internationale d'enseignement supérieur, Paris, 26-28 juillet 1937. Paris : IICI, 1938. P. 15, 104-105.
• UNESCO Archives, Archival Group 1 : IICI/01. IICI. Coopération intellectuelle, n°99-100, mars-avril 1939, "Nouveaux membres de la CICI", p. 782.
• Galal, A. F. "Taha Hussein (1889-1973)" in Prospects: The Quaterly Review of Comparative Education. Paris, UNESCO: Bureau international d'éducation, vol. XXIII, non. 3 / 4, 1993, p. 687-710. Retrieved from: http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/husseine.pdf Accessed 31 October 2011.
• "Taha Husayn". Article de l'Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/580368/Taha-Husayn Accessed 31 October 2011.
• Naga, S. A. A. "Taha Hussein". Article de l'Encyclopædia universalis. Retrieved from: https://www.universalis-edu.com/encyclopedie/taha-hussein/# Accessed 31 October 2011.
• Renoliet, J.-J. (1999). L'UNESCO oubliée. La Société des Nations et la coopération intellectuelle (1919-1946). Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne. P. 185.