Search

b. Yūsuf b. Nāṣīf , (1176- ca. 1244/1763- ca. 1828), Syrian Melkite Christian chronicler, scribe and poet, of Greek extraction from Istanbul, born and died in Dayr al-Ḳamar, Lebanon. Sent to Egypt (1798-1804) by his employer, Bas̲h̲īr S̲h̲ihāb II [ q.v.], Prince of the Druzes, he wrote a chronicle of the French occupation. Several versions have appeared: D̲h̲ikr tamalluk d̲j̲umhūr al-Fransāwiyya al-aḳṭār al-Miṣriyya wa ’l-bilād al-S̲h̲āmiyya ( 1792-1801), ed. Alix Desgranges aîné, Paris 1839, and ed. Dr. Yāsīn Suwayd, Beirut 1990, using the same text; Gaston Wiet (ed.), Chronique d…

(1867-99). Syro-Egyptian journalist, poet, novelist, playwright and prolific translator, born in Beirut. His family moved to Alexandria in 1873. He was a journalist on al-Ahrām for more than ten years, founded the Lisān al-ʿArab and al-Salām newspapers, and edited the Anīs al-D̲j̲alīs magazine. Considered an excellent poet, his youthful dīwān was published as Tad̲h̲kār al-ṣibā and later selections from his poetry and prose appeared. One of the most competent translators of the period, he translated fiction by Alexandre Dumas père , Lamartine and others…

b. Ibrāhīm (1850-1917), controversial Lebanese physician and social reformer. He began his studies of medicine in the Syrian Protestant College, completing them in Paris and Istanbul; he was to practise in Ṭanṭā and Cairo. He published al-S̲h̲ifāʾ magazine (1886-91) to spread the new medical ideas, and, with Salāma Mūsā [ q.v.], al-Mustaḳbal (1914), in order to build a society based upon modern scientific reasoning. His articles in the Arab press were published in Mad̲j̲mūʿat Maḳālāt al-Duktūr S̲h̲iblī S̲h̲umayyil (Cairo 1910). The foremost populari…

, Egyptian journalist, encyclopaedist, socialist, political campaigner, enthusiastic moderniser and “westerniser”. Born ca. 1887 to a well-to-do Coptic family near Zagazig, he died on 5 August 1958. He attended both Christian and Muslim kuttāb s, a school of the Coptic Charitable Society, and then the “national” school. From there he went to the Tawfīḳiyya (where he taught briefly in 1919), and the Khedivial College in Cairo. As a youngster he read avidly the Arab dailies and reviews, that spread the new ideas from Europe and made accessible European literature; to al-Muḳtaṭaf …

b. Miṣbāḥ al-Ḥasanī , (1843-96), radical Egyptian orator and propagandist, noted for his daring use of the vernacular in print and his caustic journalism, endeavouring inter alia to stem European intervention and limit the power of the Khedives. He was born in Alexandria, and he studied at the mosque of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ibrāhīm Pas̲h̲a. Running away from there, he worked as a telegraph officer in Banhā, and then later at the residence of the mother of the Khedive Ismāʿīl in Cairo. While in the capital he followed courses at al…

, Ibrāhīm (1898-1953), influential Egyptian Romantic poet. He graduated from the Medical School in 1923, going into private practice. He was then employed by Egyptian Railways, and later became Director of the Medical Department of the Ministry of Waḳfs . He associated with and influenced the Romantic poets ʿAlī Maḥmūd Ṭāhā, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī al-Hams̲h̲arī and Ṣāliḥ D̲j̲awdat, like him all connected with the Apollo magazine, founded ¶ by Aḥmad Zakī Abū S̲h̲ādī [ q.v.] in 1932. An outstanding lyrical poet, much of his work concerns his personal relationships, in p…

, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-S̲h̲āfiʿī , Egyptian jurist and grammarian. He was born and lived most of his life in Banhā, and died in 1859 in Cairo, aged about seventy. He was the author of two treatises on ʿilm al-ʿarabiyya , and bayān , and a number of commentaries: (1) on Ibn His̲h̲ām’s Ḳaṭr al-nadā on grammar; (2) on the S̲h̲arḥ al-k̲h̲aṭīb al-S̲h̲irbīnī , al-Iḳnāʿ fī ḥall alfāẓ Abī S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ on fīḳh , Būlāḳ 1289/1872; (3) on al-Suyūṭī’s Tafsīr al-Ḏj̲alālayn , entitled Ḳurrat al-ʿayn wa-nuzhat al-fuʾād ; (4) on the S̲h̲arḥ al-S̲h̲abs̲h̲īrī li’l-arbaʿīn of al-Nawawī, entitled ʿArūs al-a…

, Syrian Maronite journalist, historian, and pioneer of Arab theatre. Born 1850 in Beirut, he died in Alexandria on 25 November 1884. He studied Arabic, French and Italian. He worked on his uncle Nīḳūlā’s al-Misḅāḥ newspaper in Beirut and wrote for al-Nad̲j̲āḥ and al-Zahra . He was employed in the customs in Beirut in 1876. In the family tradition he became involved with the theatre with an adaptation, Mayy wa-Hūrās (Beirut 1875 written 1868), of Corneille’s tragedy Horace , to which he had added poetry and songs. Seeking material support for a theat…

(1932-78), a leading experimental Egyptian dramatist, director, actor and poet. He studied law at the College of Law and drama in Cairo and Moscow, working for several years in the Arabic section of Radio Moscow. Back in Cairo from 1964 onwards, in a flourishing era of Egyptian theatre, using Brechtian devices, he utilised the Egyptian folk heritage and music, and classical and modern poetry as source material for his colloquial plays, telling the story of the struggle of the ordinary Egyptian p…

, Egyptian writer (born ca. 1242/1826-7, died 1898), was the son of a court clerk, named Yūsuf al-Ḥusaynī. When a boy he learned English, French and Turkish at the school of languages ( Madrasat al-Alsun ) and when only 16 was given an appointment in the government translation bureau ( Ḳalam al-tard̲j̲ama ). His patron, the doctor Clot Bey, had him appointed to the Conseil de Médecine ( Mad̲j̲lis al-ṭibb ) in 1273/1856-7. After a succession of posts, in 1280/1863-4 he entered the War Ministry ( dīwān ¶ niẓārat ʿumūm al-d̲j̲ihādiyya ) and five years later the Ministry of the Interior ( dīwān al-d…

(a., pl. tarād̲j̲im ), verbal noun of the verb tard̲j̲ama “to interpret, translate, write the biography of someone ( lahu )”. For the function of interpreter, see tard̲j̲umān . ¶ 1. In literature. Here, it may form part of the title of a biography, or, especially in contemporary North Africa, the biography (or autobiography) itself. Hence ʿilm al-tarād̲j̲im is a branch of historical research, sometimes equated by the Twelver S̲h̲īʿa with ʿilm al-rid̲j̲āl [ q.v.]. The term dates to at least the early 5th/11th century, where it appears in the titles of three works by al…