Youssef Ziedan () (born June 30, 1958) is 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 ...

writer and scholar who specializes in Arabic and Islamic studies. He is a public lecturer, columnist, and prolific author of more than 50 books. He is also director of the Manuscript Center and Museum at the

Bibliotheca Alexandrina The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin, 'Library of Alexandria'; , ) (BA) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the larg ...

. His primary scholarly interests are in cataloguing, editing, and publishing Arabic and Islamic manuscripts. He has worked as a consultant in the field of Arabic heritage preservation and conservation in a number of international institutions, including

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

ESCWA The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA; ) is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The role of the Commission is to promote economic and social d ...

, and 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, ...

, and has also directed a number of projects aimed at the identification and preservation of Arabic manuscript heritage.

Biography

Ziedan was born in Sohag, Egypt in 1958. He moved with his grandfather 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 ...

when he was still a child and was raised and educated there. He joined the philosophy department at the

University of Alexandria Alexandria University () is a public university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fouad University (the name of which was later changed to Cairo University), becoming an independent entity in 1942. It was known as ...

and graduated ''summa cum laude''. His postgraduate studies focused on

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

and its philosophical underpinnings ??? . He obtained his PhD degree in 1989 for his dissertation on The Qadiri Sufi Order, with a study and edition of the poetical works of

Abdul Qadir al-Jilani Abdul Qadir Gilani (; ; c. 1077/78 – 1166) was a Hanbali scholar, preacher, and Sufi leader who was the eponym of the Qadiriyya, one of the oldest Sufi orders. He was born c. 1077/78 in the town of Na'if, Rezvanshahr in Gilan, Persia, and ...

. Ziedan lives in Alexandria with his family.

Scholarship

Sufism studies

Ziedan's work on Sufism underscores not just the mystic introspective lineaments of Islamic Sufism, but, more importantly, its philosophical underpinnings. He has placed consistent emphasis on the study of

Ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

and Abdul Karim al-Jili, regarded as two of the most important figures of philosophical Sufism in the history of Islam. His work on Abdul Karim al-Jili is seen by commentators as the most authoritative work in the field.

Islamic philosophy

The most distinctive feature in Ziedan's study of Islamic philosophy is his attempt to uncover the origins of a strand of Islamic philosophical thought that, in his view, had not been influenced by

Hellenistic philosophy Hellenistic philosophy is Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period in Ancient Greece, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The dominant schools of this period were the Stoics, the ...

. He thinks that the parable of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, for instance, with its many versions and interpretations by such important figures as

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

Ibn Tufayl Ibn Ṭufayl ( – 1185) was an Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath: a writer, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, astronomer, and vizier. As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical no ...

, al-Suhrawardi and

Ibn al-Nafis ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī Ḥazm al-Qarashī (Arabic: علاء الدين أبو الحسن عليّ بن أبي حزم القرشي ), known as Ibn al-Nafīs (Arabic: ابن النفيس), was an Arab polymath whose area ...

, is a source for understanding Islamic philosophy on its own terms. This view forms the basis of his re-editing of the complete philosophical parable of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan in his ''Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: the Four Texts and their Authors''. Ziedan's work as a public intellectual is reflected in several of his later works, including ''Arabic Theology and Rationals Behind Religious Violence'' اللاهوت العربي وأصول العنف الديني which examines the dynamics behind the key ideas that shaped the faiths of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, and

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 ...

, and their links to each other and to the geography of the region.

History of Islamic medicine

Another dimension to Ziedan's work is his study of the history of Islamic medicine, which draws him into the scientific realms of medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and related topics. His scholarly career has included extensive explorations of the scientific heritage of Arab peoples throughout history, with special focus on medicine. He has studied the Arabic translations, commentaries and annotations on

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

and

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

especially. Furthermore, his studies on

and his critical edition of his grand medical encyclopedia (30 volumes) ''al-Shamil fil Sina’a al-Tibbiyya'' catapulted Ziedan into being considered an Ibn al-Nafis expert.

Arabic manuscript preservation

Ziedan sees cataloguing as an ''ars maior'' that has not received the attention it deserves. According to him, cataloguing is the key to a panoramic view of a particular manuscript heritage. With this in mind, Ziedan produced some 20 manuscript catalogues using detailed descriptive cataloguing techniques rather than short, uninformative bibliographic records. His catalogues are mostly thematic, i.e. they are not general catalogues, but handle each theme of knowledge separately.

Fiction

In addition to his scholarship, Ziedan is also a published author of award-winning Arabic fiction. His 2006 novel ''Zil al-Af’a'' ("Shadow of the Serpent") is critically-acclaimed. The novel treats the notion of the sacred female through a contemporary setting with humdrum personae in the first part; in the second part, letter fragments from a female anthropologist to her daughter, the heroine of the first part, explain how the role of the female has been misshapen, abused and diabolically transformed throughout history. The novel has been criticized for its abnormal structure and superfluous intellectualism. Ziedan's second novel is the historico-theological work '' Azazeel'' (عزازيل), which won the 2009

International Prize for Arabic Fiction The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing ...

.Gemma Champ
"Egyptian wins Arabic Booker prize"
''The National'', Mar 17, 2009 The book is written as if a translation of

scrolls A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

that had been discovered in the ruins of a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

northwest of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. An Egyptian monk called “Hypa” wrote the original manuscript as an autobiography in the

Aramaic language Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient Syria (region), region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai Peninsula, Sinai, Southeastern Anatolia Regi ...

in the first half of the fifth century AD. This was a time of great internal turmoil in

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christianity, Christian traditions and Christian denomination, church families that originally developed during Classical antiquity, classical and late antiquity in the Eastern Mediterranean region or locations fu ...

. Ziedan's other novels include ''The Nabatean'' (النبطي) in 2012, ''Places'' (محال) in 2013 and its sequel, ''Guantanamo'' (جونتنامو) in 2013. His novels have been translated into English, French, Italian and Russian, among other languages. His most recent novel, ''Fardeqan – the Detention of the Great Sheikh'', published by Egypt's Dar el-Shorouk, was short-listed for the 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Awards and honours

*2009

(for ''Azazeel)'' *2013 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation (won by Jonathan Wright for his translation into English of Ziedan's ''Azazeel).''

Select bibliography

;Sufism * ''Anonymous Sufi Poets'' * ''Al-Mutawaliyat: studies in Sufism'' * ''Sufi Orders and al-Qadiriyya in Egypt'' * ''A Prologue to Sufism by al-Sulami: a study and a critical edition'' * ''The Poetical Works of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani'' ;Islamic Philosophy * ''Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: the four texts and their authors'' * ''Al-Lahut al-'Arabi: and the roots of religious violence'' ;History of Arabic Medicine * ''A Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms'' * ''Treatises on Body Parts by Ibn al-Nafis'' * ''Rediscovering ‘Alaa al-Din (Ibn al-Nafis) al-Qarashi'' * ''Treatise on Gout by Rhazes'' * ''Al-Shamil fil al-Sina’a al-Tibbiyya in 30 volumes'' ;Manuscript Cataloguing: * ''Rare manuscripts in the Alexandria Municipality Collection'' * ''Catalogue of the Alexandria University Manuscript Collection'' * ''Catalogue of the Escorial Monastery Manuscript Collection'' * ''Catalogue of the Religious Institute of Sumuha'' ;Literary Criticism and Fiction * ''Iltiqa’ al-Bahrin: essays in literary criticism'' * ''The Shadow of the Serpent'' * '' Azazeel'' * ''The Nabatean'' * ''Fardeqan – the Detention of the Great Sheikh'' * ''Al Waraaq - Wishes of Highness'' * ''Hakim - The madness of Ibn Al Haytham''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziedan, Youssef 1958 births Living people Islamic studies scholars Egyptian scholars Egyptian novelists International Prize for Arabic Fiction winners Alexandria University alumni