Taha Hussein

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 Our first superhero is Taha Hussein, he was an Egyptian writer who taught people and wrote novels, he devoted his life to intellectual freedom for the writer, critic, and scholar and to the introduction of Western learning into his country. He was born on November 4,1889 in a mill town in Egypt. He became blind at the age of 3 from an eye disease and also some folk medicine. He overcome poverty and blindness to become a Famous writer in Egypt and a leading Public figure. Hussein served as minister of education from 1951 to 1952. After he completed his his studies at his village he went to cairo to attend Al-Azhar. 

Although he’s blind but he went to school and studied hard, he went to the Egyptian university and he even received his first doctorate for his thesis “Abu-l-Ala all Maarri, the blind Syrian philosopher” In 1914. Hussein even wrote a scholarship in a university in france first to Montpellier and then to Paris, In Montpellier he employed a young Frenchwoman and student, Suzanne Bresseau, as his reader, and she later became his wife. and he wrote many individual writings that had life lessons for many people. 

After he returned to Egypt and after earning his doctorate in 1919, Hussein became a lecturer in ancient history at the Egyptian university, and in 1925 he was given the chair in Arabic language and literature, then he was elected the dean of the faculty. In 1926 he caused a public chaos with his work on pre-islamic poetry that scandalized the the conservative Muslim opinion by criticizing traditional assumptions. This outcry almost caused the government to fall.

Hussein was known for his boldness and his impassion-ate support of academic of academic freedom. In 1932 he was dismissed. He wrote for literary magazines and newspapers. He became a prime mover in the founding of Alexandria university and became the minister of education and chairman of the cultural committee of the League of Arab States.

Hussein retired from academic life in 1952 to continue his writings, which he did until his death in 1973. Hussein’s works places him at the forefront of the Egyptian literary renaissance of the 20th century. He worked on the edition of Classical Arabic texts and translated Ancient Greek and modern French classics into Arabic. 

Some of Hussein’s numerous short stories and novels: “Ala Hamish al-Sirah” (1933-1943), “Dua al-Karawan”  (1934), “The Appeal of the Caravan” and “Shajarat al-Bus” (1944). Hussein’s fictions was a vehicle to attack the Egyptian system. One of his most important work is the major study “Mustaqbal al-Thaqafah fi Misr” (1938) in which he developed his thesis that Egyptian culture was part of Mediterranean culture and any attempt to "orientalize" it was a dangerous error. 

In his autobiography “Al-Ayyam” (1929-1955), Husayn retells in simple language his own story, from village life and childhood blindness through educational trials and maturity. The value of this work are suggested by the fact that it has been translated into at least nine languages including Chinese, English, Hebrew, and Russian.