Ahmad Amin

Who was Ahmad Amin?

Ahmad Amin was an Egyptian historian and writer. He wrote a series of books on the history of the Islamic civilization, a famous autobiography, as well as an important dictionary of Egyptian folklore.

After receiving a traditional religious education the University of Al-Azhar, he worked as qadi until 1926. He then taught Arabic literature at Cairo University, 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 and al-Thakafa, founder of Ladjnat al-ta'lif wa l-tardjama wa-l-nashr. He worked as head of the culture department at the Egyptian Ministry of Education before leading the cultural division of the Arab League. He is most famous for his long history of Islamic culture, in three volumes which is the first attempt of its kind in the modern history of the Muslim world. He also left an autobiography while his main articles were published under the title Fayd al-khatir.