Ahmad Amin (Arabic: أحمد أمين), (1954-1886) was an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

historian and writer. He wrote a series of books on the history of the Islamic civilization (1928–1953), a famous autobiography (''My Life'', 1950), as well as an important dictionary of Egyptian

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

(1953).

Biography

After receiving his education in the University of Al-Azhar, he worked as

qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...

until 1926. He then taught

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

, where he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts, until 1946. Ahmad Amin was one of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time: he was editor of the literary journals ''Al Risalah'' (1933) and '' Al Thaqafa'' (1939), founder of ''Ladjnat al-ta'lif wa l-tardjama wa-l-nashr'' ("Literary Committee of Translation and Publication"). He also contributed to another magazine entitled '' Al Hilal'' from 1933 to his death in 1954. He worked as head of the culture department at the Egyptian Ministry of Education before leading the cultural division of the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

. He is most famous for his long history of Islamic culture, in three volumes (''Fajr al-islam'', 1928; ''Duha l-islam'', 1933–1936; ''Zuhr al-islam'', 1945–1953) which is the first attempt of its kind in the modern history of the Muslim world. He also left an autobiography (Hayati, 1950) while his main articles were published under the title ''Fayd al-khatir''. He lectured on Egyptian literary history between the years of 1939 and 1946. It was during this time that Amin stated his initial belief that Egyptians had not contributed to

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the way other Arab populations had. Amin's student Shawqi Daif claimed that the dearth of properly published Egyptian works from the period made such a judgement tenuous, and suggested that he and Amin republish the Egyptian sections in anthologies of poetry from the period. Amin agreed to write the introduction while Daif wrote the preface, while fellow scholar Ihsan Abbas assisted the team with editing the folios for printing from 1951 until 1952.

References

Bibliography

* 1978, ''My Life. The Autobiography of an Egyptian Scholar, Writer and Cultural Leader'', traduction et introduction de Issa Boullata, Leyde, E. J. Brill, 241 p. * Avril 2011, ''Autobiographies d'intellectuels égyptiens : Ahmad Amin, Salāma Mūsā, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Subjectivité, identité et vérité'', Martine Houssay

External links

* Biography of Ahmad Amîn by Emmanuelle Perri
Le creuset et l'orfèvre: le parcours d'Ahmad Amîn (1886–1954)
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Ahmad 20th-century Egyptian writers 20th-century Egyptian historians 1886 births 1954 deaths Al-Azhar University alumni Academic staff of Cairo University Egyptian magazine founders Members of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo