Ahmad Amin

1886 - 1954

Egyptian Muslim educator and writer.

Ahmad Amin was born in Cairo, the son of a shaykh at al-Azhar. His early education was in kuttabs, at a government primary school, and then at al-Azhar. In 1907 he entered Madrasat al-Qada, a mosque school, spending four years as a student and some ten as assistant to the director, who introduced him to Western and particularly English scholarship. After a few years as a shariʿa judge, he joined the faculty of the Egyptian University (now University of Cairo) in 1926 and remained there until retirement in 1946. He was dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1939 to 1941. From 1914 until his death, he chaired the Committee on Authorship, Translation, and Publication (Lajnat al-Ta'lif wa al-Tarjama wa alNashr), editing its weekly literary magazine, al-Thaqafa, from 1939 to 1953. He was also a member of the Arabic Language Academy, founded the Popular University (later, Foundation for Popular Culture), and served as director of the Cultural Department of the Arab League. Through these and other activities, he was a prominent participant in the intellectual life of Egypt.

The best known of his writings are his eight-volume series on early Islamic cultural history, Fajr al-Islam (The dawn of Islam, 1929), Duha al-Islam (The forenoon of Islam, 1933 - 1936), and Zuhr al-Islam (The noon of Islam, 1945 - 1955), the first effort by an Arab Muslim writer to make use of Western scholarship in writing this history. He wrote over 600 articles on almost every conceivable topic except party politics for periodicals such as al-Thaqafa, al-Risala, and al-Hilal; most of these were republished in ten volumes of Fayd al-Khatir (Over-flowing thoughts, 1938 - 1955) or in Zuʿama al-Islah fi al-ʿAsr al-Hadith (Leaders of reform in the modern age, 1948). He collaborated in editing a number of classical Islamic texts and wrote or cowrote books for schools and books on Western philosophy and literature. Other writings include Yawm al-Islam (The day of Islam, 1952), al-Sharq wa al-Gharb (The East and the West, 1955), and his autobiography, Hayati (My life, 1950, 1952).

He held opinions close to the secularist ones for which Ali Abd al-Raziq and Taha Husayn were criticized but stated them more cautiously; he was particularly known for questioning the authenticity of the hadith (legends and traditions surrounding the prophet Muhammad). He wanted his compatriots to learn from the West but at the same time affirm their own Arab - Islamic cultural personality. Thus, much of his work seeks to present the treasures of Islamic civilization to his readers. His series on Islamic cultural history uses Western scholarship to help make that history accessible to modern Muslims, while, by stressing the contribution of non-Muslim cultures to early Islamic culture, the series conveys the message that Muslims today can also learn from non-Muslims. Other writings also give a positive presentation of Western ideas and ways, although his criticism of Western colonialism and materialism could be harsh and angry, especially in some of his last writings.

Bibliography

Amin, Ahmad. My Life: The Autobiography of an Egyptian Scholar, Writer, and Cultural Leader, translated by Issa J. Boullata. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1978.

Shepard, William. The Faith of a Modern Muslim Intellectual: The Religious Aspects and Implications of the Writings of Ahmad Amin. New Delhi: Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, 1982.

— WILLIAM SHEPARD