Taha Husayn

Taha Husayn

 or Taha Hussein

Taha Husayn.

(credit: Courtesy of the Academy of Arabic Language, al-Jizah, Egypt)

(born Nov. 14, 1889, Maghaghah, Egypt—died Oct. 28, 1973, Cairo) Egyptian writer. Though blinded by an illness at age two, he became a professor of Arabic literature at the secular University of Cairo, where his bold views often enraged Islamic religious conservatives. An outstanding figure of the modernist movement in Egyptian literature, he wrote novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known for his autobiography, Al-Ayyam (3 parts, 1929–67), the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West. Its parts were published in English separately as An Egyptian Childhood, The Stream of Days, and A Passage to France and together as The Days.