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Levon Alexander Boyadjian
Van Leo (born Levon Alexander Boyadjian; November 20, 1921 – March 18, 2002) was an Armenian-Egyptian photographer who became known for his numerous self-portraits and portraits of celebrities of his time. Biography and career Born in November 1921 in the Ottoman Empire, Van Leo grew up during an era of Armenian genocide and persecution and had to flee with his family at the age of 4 to take refuge in Egypt. It was only due to his father's privileged social position as a worker for a German-owned Baghdad railway Company that Levon and his family escaped the genocide in the Ottoman Empire.Corgnati, Martina"Van Leo: An Armenian Photographer in Cairo" Excerpt from A Photographer called Van Leo. 2007. Web. In Egypt, Levon attended the English Mission School followed by the English Mission College. It was at the English Mission College, around the age of 16 or 17, after having bought Hollywood postcards of famous film star that Levon discovered his interest in photography. Fascinated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taha Hussein
Taha Hussein (, ; 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. His sobriquet was "The Dean of Arabic Literature" (). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-one times. Early life Taha Hussein was born in Izbet el Kilo, a village in the Minya Governorate in central Upper Egypt. 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. 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. In 1914, he received a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
