Henri Curiel was born in Cairo on September 13, 1914 to a wealthy banking family of Italian nationality that traced its roots in Egypt to the early nineteenth century. He was assassinated in Paris on May 4, 1978 and is buried at Père Lachaise in Paris. His assassins have never been identified.

In 1935, at the age of twenty-one, Curiel sought and obtained Egyptian citizenship. A militant Marxist, he regularly presided over political and intellectual discussions at his stationery and bookstore in Cairo, Le Rond Point, and was the mentor to a considerable number of Egyptian activists.

In 1939,…