SG : 1713-14
SCOTT :
1383-84
Muhammad Husayn
Haykal
Muhammad
Husayn Haykal (also spelled Haikal or Heikal or Heykal Arabic:
محمد
حسين
هيكل, Egyptian Arabic
pronunciation: [muˈħæmmæd ħuˈse:n
ˈhe:kæl]) (August
20, 1888 – December 8, 1956) was an Egyptian writer,
journalist, politician and Minister of Education in
Egypt.
Life
Haykal was
born in Mansoura, Ad Daqahliyah
in 1888. He obtained a
B.A. in Law in
1909 and a JD from
the Sorbonne University
in Paris in 1912.
While a student in Paris, he composed what is considered the first
authentic Egyptian novel, Zaynab.
After returning to Egypt, he worked
as a lawyer for 10 years, then as a journalist. He was
elected as editor-in-chief of Al
Siyasa newspaper,
the organ of "The constitutional Tory party" for which he was also
an adviser. In 1937, he was appointed as Minister of State for the
Interior Ministry in the Muhammad Mahmoud
Pasha´s second government. Then he was
appointed as a Minister of Education where he introduced several
reforms, including decentralization, by establishing educational
zones and making programs and curricula nationally oriented. He was
greatly influenced and inspired by the comprehensive reforms
of Mohammad
Abduh, Ahmad Lutfy El Sayed and
Qasim Amin. Haykal is
the father of Fayza
Haikal who teaches Egyptology
at the American
University in Cairo.
Works
His
works include:
- Zeinab,
1914; the first modern Egyptian
novel.
-
Biographies of Egyptian and Western
Personalities,
1929.
- The Life
of Muhammad,
1933; a biography of Muhammad.
- In the House
of Revelation,
1939.
- Al Farouq
Omar,1944/45.
- Memories on
Egyptian politics,
1951-53.
- Thus Was I
Created,1955.
-
Faith, Knowledge and
Philosophy, published
in 1964.
-
The Islamic Empire and
sacred places, published
in 1964 .
- Egyptian
short stories, published
in 1967.
- Othman Ibn
Affan, published
in 1968.
- Mehraj-ud-din
beigh, Arabic
master.
Ahmed Lutfi
el-Sayed
Ahmed Lutfi
el-Sayed or Aḥmad Luṭfī Sayyid
Pasha (IPA: [ˈæħmæd ˈlotˤfi
(ʔe)sˈsæjjed]) (15
January 1872 – 5 March 1963) was an Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist and
the first director of Cairo
University. He was an
influential person in the Egyptian nationalist movement and used
his position in the media to strive and gain an independent Egypt
from British rule. He was also one of the architects of
modern Egyptian nationalism
as well as the architect of
Egyptian secularism
and liberalism. He was
fondly known as the "Professor of the Generation". Lutfi was one of
the fiercest opponents of pan-Arabism,
insisting that Egyptians are Egyptians and not Arabs.
He is considered one of the most
influential scholars and intellectuals in the history of
Egypt.
Early
life
Lutfi was
born in the rural village of Berqin, near Al Senbellawein
in the Dakahlia Governorate
on 15 January 1872. He was educated in a
traditional kuttāb, a government school in
Manṣūra, the Khedivial Secondary School in Cairo and the
School of Law in Cairo. While at law school, Al-Sayyid made contact
with influential people such as Muhammad Abduh
and Hassuna al-Nawawi. Abduh played a
pivotal role in Lutfi´s experience with his reformist movement as
well as his ideology concerning
politics.
Writings and scholarly
work
After
graduating from law school, Lutfi entered the legal department of
government services and worked there until 1905, then under the
British administration of Lord
Cromer. Lutfi became editor-in-chief of a
newspaper called al-Djarida in 1907. The paper was prominent for
writing enlightened and liberal materials and attracted the
attention of many liberal activists. The writings Lutfi composed
for al-Djarida during his time as editor-in-chief are
considered his most important and influential. He expounded upon
his liberal beliefs about the freedom of Egypt and how people must
stand up take action in the newsletters; because of these views,
Lutfi created a name for himself in the media and government of
Egypt.
Denshaway
incident
The Denshawai incident
was a violent clash that occurred in
June 1906 between Egyptian peasants in the village of Denshaway and
British soldiers who were pigeon hunting in the area. The British
had occupied Egypt in 1882 and used British soldiers to help put
down the Urabi
Rebellion, an Egyptian constitutionalist
movement. On June 13, 1906, five British officers were hunting for
pigeons in Denshaway, an area that needs approval from a headsman.
The hunt was approved, but the headsman was not with the
officers.
They shot
pigeons belonging to villagers, angering the owners. The major
catalyst was the accidental shooting of the wife of the prayer
leader at the local mosque. Enraged, the Egyptians mobbed the
British officers and camp. The British officers opened fire on the
villagers, wounded five, and set fire to the grain of Abd-el-Nebi.
Abd-el-Nebi, whose wife had been seriously injured, struck one of
the officers with a stick. He was joined by the elderly Hassan
Mahfouz, whose pigeons had been killed. Other villagers threw
stones at them. The officers surrendered their weapons, along with
their watches and money, but this failed to appease the villagers.
Two officers escaped, one of whom managed to contact the British
Army; the other died of heatstroke
some distance from the village. An
Egyptian peasant who tried to help the sick man was killed by
soldiers who came across them. Meanwhile, the elders had
intervened, saving the remaining soldiers and allowing them to
return to their base.
After the
incident, 52 villagers were arrested for crimes of violence against
British officers. The trial for the villagers was administered by
Ahmed Lutfi-al Sayyid. As editor-in-chief of
al-Djarida,
Lutfi was able to spread word of the incident quickly and the
treatment and violence directed toward the accused. He participated
as attorney in the trial after finding out that his daughter was
directly involved, which prompted Lutfi to take action. A statement
by Lutfi describing the brutality of the incident read, “They
fell upon Denshwai, and spared neither man nor his brother. Slowly
they hanged the one and flogged the other.” It was the
Denshwai incident which triggered the creation of the first
Egyptian political party created by
Lutfi.
Hizbal-Umma
In 1907
after the Denshawai
incident, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed
founded Egypt´s first
political party, el-Umma ("the Nation"), which came as a reaction
to the 1906 Denshaway incident and the rise of Egyptian nationalist
sentiment. Lutfi´s earlier work with al-Djarida helped his cause from the numerous
writings he published in the paper along with his gaining support
upon the Denshwai incident. His involvement during this time is
considered to be one of the most pivotal roles in the evacuation of
British forces in the 20th century. It was also in 1907 that Lutfi
published the al-Djarida, a collection of his nationalist ideas
and opinions on political issues, whose statement of purpose read:
"al-Djarida is a purely Egyptian party which aims to
defend Egyptian interests of all kinds". Lutfi
introduced the Arab public to the ideas of British philosopher and
economist John Stuart Mill
and his definition of
liberalism.
Intellectual
contribution
Ahmed Lutfi
al-Sayyid was an outright liberal and believed in equality and
rights for all people. Lutfi´s contribution to Egypt in
intellectual ideas and movements redefined history in Egypt. He was
considered one of the first Egyptian officials to introduce
Mill’s works and reading to the general Arab public so they
could educate themselves on concepts of liberalism. He believed
that people should have a say in what goes on in their government
and country, and that all people had certain civil rights that
could not be taken away. He was a staunch proponent of
anti-colonialism and the negative effects it has on countries,
which is what led to him being such an active member of the
anti-British involvement in Egypt. He took a strong stance against
the pan-Arabism
view that was held at that time which
emphasized a unification of all Arab countries and people into one
entity. He believed that Egyptians were different from Arabs and
had their own separate beliefs and cultural
aspects.
Later
years
In 1915
Lutfi was appointed as director of the National
Library of Egypt. While
working for the library, Lutfi did a substantial amount of work
including translations from Aristotle through
the French versions. He
was a member of the Egyptian delegation to the
Paris Peace
Conference held
in Versailles
in 1919, where he pleaded for the
independence of Egypt from Britain.
Ahmed Lutfi
el-Sayed was the first director of the Egyptian
University,
inaugurated on Monday 11 May 1925. He was a close friend
of Taha Hussein
and resigned his post as university
director as a protest against the Egyptian government´s decision to
transfer Hussein from his university position in
1932. He resigned again in 1937 when the
Egyptian police broke into the court of the Egyptian
University. He
ultimately stepped down as President in May 1941. During his
presidency of the Egyptian University, the first promotion
of women graduated
with university degrees.
In addition,
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed held positions such as the minister of
education, the minister of interior, the director of
the Arabic
language assembly, a member
of the senate, and the director of House of Books. He died in
1963.
Influences and legacy
A bulk of Lutfi´s political
influences came from Western rhetoric that he had encountered
through his time studying at the law university. His primary
influencers were Aristotle, John Locke, Bentham, Mill, Spencer, Rousseau, Comte,
and Le Bon. Lutfi
saw Egyptian nationalism
as the direct result of historical and
environmental factors, which is why he was against pan-Islamic,
pan-Arab, and pan-Ottoman ideologies. Lutfi was against religion as
a basis for nationhood and instead advocated that social and
political utility was more important. Lutfi´s teachings and works
were considered so important that he was dubbed
ustād̲h̲
al-d̲j̲īl or “Professor of the
Generation.
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