or Taha Husayn
born Nov. 14, 1889, Maghāghah, Egypt
died Oct. 28, 1973, Cairo
Egyptian writer.
Though blinded by an illness at age two, he became a professor of Arabic literature at the secular University of Cairo, where his bold views often enraged Islamic religious conservatives. An outstanding figure of the modernist movement in Egyptian literature, he wrote novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known for his autobiography, the two-part Al-Ayyam , published in English as An Egyptian Childhood (1932) and The Stream of Days (1943), which was the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West.