William M. Hutchins

Who is William M. Hutchins?

William Maynard Hutchins is an American academic, author and translator of contemporary Arabic literature. He is currently a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Hutchins graduated from Yale University 1964, where he majored in art history. Subsequently he moved to the University of Chicago, where in 1967 he obtained a Master of Arts in philosophy and a Ph.D. in 1971 in Near Eastern languages. His doctoral thesis, on the Persian philosopher Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, is entitled "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on Knowledge". After stints at Encyclopædia Britannica, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, the University of Ghana, and Harvard University, Hutchins in 1978 joined the faculty of Appalachian State. He was promoted to full professor in 1986.

As a translator, Hutchins's best-known work is his translation of the Cairo Trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz. This trio of novels is widely regarded as one of the finest works of fiction in Arabic literature, and Hutchins' translation is the principal version available in English. In addition, he has translated a variety of Arabic authors: Tawfiq al-Hakim, Ibrahim 'Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini, Muhammad Salmawy, al-Jahiz, Nawal El-Saadawi, Muhammad Khudayyir, Ibrahim al-Koni, Fadhil Al-Azzawi, Hassan Nasr, and others.