1898 - 1973
Taha Hussien was born on October 28 1898 in the
province of Al-
Minya in upper
Egypt, he was the 7th of 13 children, he contracted an eye infection at an early age and because of mistreatment became blind, going to magicians and
witch doctors to cure his blindness didnt help at all!.
What amazed people of his time was his blindess, even though he was blind, Taha memorized the
Qur'an by heart, and was discontented by the narrow thinking and
conservative tutors and scholars of his time. He was sent to
Al-Azhar University, a very prestigous university in
Egypt.
Even though he was poor and suffered many hardships in his life, he made it to the uni, and was one of the first graduates to recieve a
Ph.D with his thesis on the skeptic poet and philosopher
Abu-Alalaa AI-Ma'arri, Taha Hussien also wrote a book that made such public up roar questioning the Ancient Pre-Islamic Arabs poetry and he was skeptical if the poems were authentic or not.
Taha was sent to
France by the University to continue his education with his careless brother who was presumably sent with him so he could take care of him, his brother did not. Taha met his "sweet voice" Suzane in France, who helped him in reading books and references, she later became his wife.
In 1918 he obtained his second Ph.D in Social
Philosophy from the
Sorbonne, Paris.
In 1919 he received a diploma in post-graduate studies in the Roman Civil Code from the same university.
He was granted honorary doctorates from the universities of
Oxford,
Madrid, and
Rome.
In 1919 he was appointed a professor of history at the Egyptian University. He did not confine himself to political and constituational history but transferred to his students his knowledge of Greek drama such as
Sophocles and
Aeschylus.
Taha Husein died in October 1973, immediately after witnessing his country's victory in its last war against
Israel when the peace process started to begin between Egypt and Israel.
He died in his home, alone with his "sweet voice" Suzanne.
---
http://google.com/search?hl=en&q=taha+hussein&spell=1