Abd al-Rahman al-Rafai (February 8, 1889 – December 3, 1966) () was an Egyptian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He dedicated his life to the study of the roles of the national movement in the history of modern

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. His most prominent work was 15 volumes in which he documented the state of Egypt from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century. He was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

even though his family was from the Levant countries. He graduated from the Khadawia school of law in 1908. He spent most of his life in Cairo but moved to

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

for high school.immediately after his graduation he practiced law for less than a month until

Mohammad Farid Mohammad Farid (or Muhammad Farîd; ; January 20, 1868 in Cairo – November 15, 1919 in Berlin) was an influential Egyptian political figure. He was a nationalist leader, writer, and lawyer. Early life Farid was born to an Egyptian Upper class ...

(a prominent lawyer and historian) asked him to become the editor of the Major General Al-San newspaper and this proved to be the first step in his life as a

and a

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Politics

In 1907 he became a part of

ian

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

that was led by Mostafa Kamel Pasha who was also a journalist and a political figure. At that point al-Rafai started to become concerned with the relationship of national history in terms of national awareness, and the emergence and development of the modern nation-state.http://www2.sis.gov.eg/Ar/Calender/default1.asp?id=2000000000000000000050&calid=0208

Contributions

Al-Rafai started writing at an early age. His first book was written in 1912 by the name of ''The People's

Rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

'' . In this book he showed his political views by writing about issues such as

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

rule and

nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

from different aspects of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. He also discussed in his book ideas about the

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

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. His second book ''Unions of Agricultural Cooperation'' was published in 1914. الرافعي .. كاتب التاريخ الأمين In this book he drew the nation's attention to the importance of development of rural areas is different aspects such as physical, socially and humanly. He also focused on education in this book. Al-Rafai emphasized that education should be guaranteed by the state and should have the priority of improvement over many smaller issues. Al-Rafai wrote his third book in 1922 titled ''National Societies'' where he spoke about the relationship between the social and political cohesion and economic growth. His most famous achievement is a 16 volume book that he had started to compose in the 18th century and didn't finish it until his fifties. Numerous historians have agreed that Al-Rafai researched and collected the most data concerning these topic that could have been known during that period in time and in his circumstances which makes is why his work became a strong basis to the history of systematic in Egypt and the Arab world as a whole.

Footnotes

Literature

* Masr Al Mogahida Fi Al Asr Al Hadith - Dar AL Hilal - 1989

External links

Profile on scc.gov.eg
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110722114336/http://arts.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/publications/general/Historical/2002/debaets_censor/egypt.pdf * https://web.archive.org/web/20131104233418/http://moheet.com/show_news.aspx?nid=61858 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafai, Abd al-Rahman al- 1889 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Egyptian historians Historians of Africa category:Supply and internal trade ministers of Egypt