Talk:Taha Hussein

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"He believed that Egyptian and Arab/Eastern civilizations were diametrically opposed, stressing that Egypt would only progress by reclaiming its ancient roots."

This is a pretty extreme view for someone like Taha Hussein to take. Is there a source? Slackerlawstudent 11:30, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Faulty information

"Taha Hussein was an Egyptian renaissance intellectual and a proponent of the ideology of Pharaonism. He believed that Egyptian and Arab/Eastern civilizations were diametrically opposed, stressing that Egypt would only progress by reclaiming its ancient roots."

However, his book "مستقبل الثقافة في مصر" published in 1938 seems to stress the opposite. He calls for Arab nationalism (although no pan-arabism) and stresses the ties between the east, west and all of the Arab lands. Unless you have an academic source (based on the above, I highly doubt it) this phrase should be deleted altogether. --Maha Odeh 07:27, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

I deleted this passage the source cited argues the exact opposite. You are correct, Maha, and there are multiple sources available showing that Hussein was the opposite of a Pharaonist. This passage is a joke WilburMercer (talk) 00:11, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

On the contrary, "مستقبل الثقافة في مصر" argues that Egypt, since ancient times, is part of a greater Mediterranean civilization, along with the Aegean and the Near East (Iraq, the Levant, and Palestine), that gave rise to modern Western civilization.

Here is a summary in English since I couldn't the translated version online.

He starts chapter 2 with the following passage:

"و انا من اشد الناس زهداً في الوهم، و انصرافاً عن الصور الكاذبة التي لا تصور شيئاً. و أنا مقتنع بأن الله وحده هو القادر على أن شيئاً من لا شيء.

فأما الناس فإنهم لا يستطيعون ذلك و لا يقدرون عليه. و أنا من أجل هذا مؤمن بأن مصر الجديدة لن تُبتكر إبتكاراً، و لن تُخترع إختراعاً، و لن تقوم إلا على مصر القديمة الخالدة، و بأن مستقبل الثقافة في مصر لن يكون إلا إمتداداً صالحاً راقياً ممتازاً لحاضرها المتواضع المتهالك الضعيف."

Translation:

"I am one of the most renouncing people of delusion, and to shun false ideas that do not represent reality. And I am convinced that only God is able to make something out of nothing.

As for the people, they cannot and are not able to do so. For this reason, I believe that the new Egypt will not be invented as an invention, and will only be based on the eternal ancient Egypt, and that the future of culture in Egypt will be nothing but a good, elegant, and excellent extension of its humble, dilapidated, weak present.

He goes on in the same chapter, and till chapter 6 discussing the evolution of the Egyptian culture and its place in the world,

Chapter 3:

"فإذا لم يكن بُدٌ من أن نلتمس أسرة للعقل المصرى نقره فيها، فهى أسرة الشعوب التى عاشت حول بحر الروم. وقد كان العقل المصرى أكبر العقول التى نشأت فى هذه الرقعة من الأرض سناً، وأبلغها أثراً."

Translation:

"If it were necessary to seek a family for the Egyptian mind, to find its place in it, it would be that of the peoples who lived around the Roman Sea. The Egyptian mind was the oldest mind that grew up in this part of the earth, and the most influential.

how throughout the ages it resisted the cultural impact of invaders,

وكانت مصر من أسبق الدول الإسلامية إلى استرجاع شخصيتها القديمة التى لم تنسها فى يوم من الأيام. فالتاريخ يحدثنا بأنها قاومت الفرس أشد المقاومة و بأنها لم تطمئن إلى المقدونيين حتى فنوا فيها، وأصبحوا من أبنائها، واتخذوا تقاليدها وسننها لهم تقاليد وسنناً.

والتاريخ يحدثنا كذلك بأنها قد خضعت لسلطان الأمبراطورية الرومانية الغربية والشرقية على كره مستمر، ومقاومة متصلة، فاضطُر القياصرة إلى أخذها بالعنف، و إخضاعها للحكم العرفى.

والتاريخ يحدثنا كذلك بأن رضاها عن السلطان العربى بعد الفتح لم يبرأ من السخط، و لم يخلص من المقاومة والثورة، و بأنها لم تهدأً و لم تطمأن إلا حين أخذت تسترد شخصيتها المستقلة فى ظل ابن طولون، و فى ظل الدول المختلفة التى قامت بعده‎٠‏

Translation

Egypt was one of the earliest Islamic countries to regain its old character, which it had never forgotten. History tells us that it resisted the Persians viciously, and that it did not rest under the Macedonians until they perished in it, and they became its children, and they adopted its traditions and laws for them as their own.

History also tells us that it was subjected to the authority of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire with constant hatred and continuous resistance, so the Caesars were forced to take it by violence, and subject it to martial rule.

History also tells us that its contentment with the Arab authority after the conquest was not absolved of anger, nor was it free from resistance and revolution, and that it did not calm down until it began to recover its independent personality under Ibn Tulun, and in the shadow of the various states that rose after him.

and how, contrary to academic consensus, driven by Eurocentric politics, the Europeans and some Egyptians consider Egypt to be amongst the Eastern cultures. Of note: Taha Hussein in his book distinguishes between the Mediterranean Near East, which is part of the cultural West, and the rest of Asia, which he considers to be the cultural East.

In Chapter 5 Taha Hussein argues that the effects of Islam on Egypt are equivalent to the effects of Christianity on Europe, and Egypt has the same claims to its ancient past as the Europeans do to theirs.

وكيف يستقيم للعقل السليم والرأي المنصف أن يقرأ الأوروبيون الإنجيل فلا يرون به بأساً على العقل الأوربي، ولايرون أنه ينقل هذا العقل من الغرب إلى الشرق، فإذا قرأوا القرآن رأوه شرقياً خالصاً مع أن القرآن كما يقول فى غير عوج ولا التواء إنما جاء متمماً ومصدقاً لما فى الإنجيل؟

إذا صحّ أن المسيحية لم تمسخ العقل الأوربى، ولم تخرجه عن يونانيته الموروثة، ولم تجرده من خصائصه التى جاءته من إقليم البحر الأبيض المتوسط، فيجب أن يصح أن الإسلام لم يغير العقل المصرى، أو لم يغير عقل الشعوب التى اعتنقته والتي كانت متأثرة بهذا البحر الأبيض المتوسط.

Translation:

How is it correct for a sound mind and a fair opinion that Europeans read the Bible, and they do not see in it any detriment on the European mind, and they do not see that it shifts this mind from the West to the East, while if they read the Qur’an, they see it as purely oriental, even though the Qur’an, as it says in no crookedness or distortion, came in confirmation of what is in the bible?

If it is true that Christianity did not distort the European mind, did not remove it from its inherited Greekness, and did not strip it of the characteristics that came to it from the Mediterranean region, then it must be true that Islam did not change the Egyptian mind, nor did it change the mind of the peoples who embraced it and who were influenced by this Mediterranean sea.

In chapters 7 to 12, he explains the inevitability and necessity that Egypt re-connects with Europe as part of Western civilization. From chapter 13 onwards he lays out the principles that should guide any attempts at reforming Egypt's education system, and starting from chapter 52, he transitions to the cultural aspects that are affected by, but not exclusive to the education system, such as literature, science, and the arts, and the role society plays in determining its intellectual output.

Chapter 57 and 58 is probably where some of the confusion may originate. In these chapters, Taha Hussein proposes that Egypt should bridge the gap between Europe and the "Arab" Near East through education. Taha Hussein saw the linguistic and cultural similarities between the Egyptians and other Near Easterners as an opportunity that, if utilized in a timely manner, would benefit the nations of the region. Taha Hussein viewed Egypt as an education hub and that Egypt should make it easier for Easterners to study in Egypt, as well as establish Egyptian schools in other Arabic-speaking nations, which he believed the "Arabs" would favour over other European schools established in their countries.

And he concluded chapter 58 with the following:

فالجامعات المصرية مثلاً بيئة تلتقي فيها الثقافات الإنسانية كلها تقريباً، يحملها إليها أساتذة ممتازون من المصريين ومن الأورببين على اختلاف أوطانهم ومذاهبهم فى السياسة والدين والاقتصاد. وهذه الثقافا كلها تلتقي وتمتزج وتصهر فى العقل المصرى الذى يسيغها و يتمثلها و يطبعها بعد ذلك شيئاً بطابعه المصرى الخاص. وهو قادر بعد هذا على أن يذيعها فى بلاد الشرق شرقيةً غربيةً عربيةً أوربيةً بريئةً مما يفسد الثقافة عادةً من التعصب والهوى.

Translation:

Egyptian universities, for example, are an environment in which almost all human cultures meet, brought there by excellent Egyptian and European professors, regardless of their countries and views on politics, religion and economics. All these cultures meet, mix and fuse in the Egyptian mind, which shapes them, imitates them, and then imprints them with something of its own special Egyptian character. After that, he is able to broadcast it in the countries of the East; Eastern, Western, Arabian, and European, innocent of that which corrupts the culture usually through fanaticism and prejudice.

The Egyptian nationalist message of the book is further emphasised by remarks that Taha Hussein made over many years through newspaper columns, public discourse, or otherwise. A few examples include:

1933 - Kawkab Al-Sharq newspaper:

إن الفرعونية متأصلة فى نفوس المصريين، وستبقى كذلك بل يجب أن تبقى وتقوى ، والمصرى فرعونى قبل أن يكون عربياً ولا يطلب من مصر أن تتخلى عن فرعونيتها وإلا كان معنى ذلك : اهدمى يا مصر أبا الهول والأهرام، وانسى نفسك واتبعينا ... لا تطلبوا من مصر أكثر مما تستطيع أن تعطى ، مصر لن تدخل فى وحدة عربية سواء كانت العاصمة القاهرة أم دمشق أم بغداد

"Pharaonism is deeply rooted in the spirits of the Egyptians. It will remain so, and it must continue and become stronger. The Egyptian is Pharaonic before being Arab. Egypt must not be asked to deny its Pharaonism because that would mean: Egypt, destroy your Sphinx and your pyramids, forget who you are and follow us! Do not ask of Egypt more than it can offer. Egypt will never become part of some Arab unity, whether the capital [of this unity] were to be Cairo, Damascus, or Baghdad."

And again:

"Egyptians have been subjected to hatred and aggression by the Persians, the Greeks and from the Arabs, Turks and French."

"like the Arab rule of all the Islamic countries, a mixture of good and evil, justice and oppression, and Egypt tired of it and revolted against it."

1938 - Al-Kushoof newspaper (could not find source): as part of a debate between him and some Arab youth. In the conversation, Hussein insisted that Pharaonism was an innate part of the Egyptian composition and would remain so, and that the Egyptian was Egyptian before anything (else). He further claimed that the vast majority of Egyptians do not have Arab blood in them, but are direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. As pertaining to the Arabic language meanwhile, Hussein declared that if language had weight in determining the fate of nations, then countries such as Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil and Portugal would not have been founded.

And for these claims, Taha Hussein came under attack by both Arab and Islamic nationalists.

Taha Hussein studied Greek and Latin, and, despite his qualifications in Arabic literature, his first teaching experience in Egypt was of Ancient History in the Private Egyptian University in 1919.

Concluding that Taha Hussein was anything but an Egyptian nationalist (Pharaonist) is simply impossible. NadermunRa (talk) 13:44, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

References

A 'Faulty Practitioner' and Article Quality Issues

He became blind at the age of three, the result of faulty treatment by an unskilled practitioner, a condition which caused him a great deal of anguish throughout his entire life.

Uh. Can we get a little more clarity on that? 'Faulty treatment' doesn't exactly make any sense, nor does 'unskilled pratitioner,' what treatment? Why was it 'faulty?' What kind of pratitioner? This whole article reads like it was revised or written by someone with very poor English skills, or merely taken from another language version of Wikipedia and translated using Google translate or another poor quality service. The whole article needs a re-write by someone with good English skills. BaSH PR0MPT (talk) 10:21, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

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List of possible Sources

These are a list of valid third party sources http://rethinkingdisability.net/a-blind-dean-for-arabic-literature-the-legacy-of-taha-hussein/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Philanark (talk • contribs) 15:07, 3 November 2020 (UTC)