I’m writing this series of articles on the occasion of the centenary of Cairo University to elaborate on how the idea of creating an Egyptian university was initiated, developed and realized. Then I will give an overview of the pattern of teaching that was followed during the first decade of its operation. In this article we will follow together the presence of Taha Hussein in this newly born university.
On May 1912, the end of the year result of the literature department at Cairo University came out to be: Sheikh Taha Hussein; he got the full mark in the ‘Comparative Study of Semitic Language’, in the “History of Philosophy”, the “Arabic philosophy and manners”, the “Literature of the Arabic Language” and the “History of Arab nations”.
He also got full mark in History of Ancient Oriental countries and Geography. None of the other students got a comparable record of full marks.
In the year 1914, the university had offered Dr. Taha Hussein who graduated this same year, a sum of 20 pounds as a reward the high grades he obtained.
On May 1914, Dr. Taha Hussein defended his Doctorate degree against a jury. The literature department assigned for him two subjects: geography at the time of the Arabs and a comparison between the religious spirits in the poems of the Khawareg. He submitted a dissertation by the title “The life of Abul Ala’a Al Ma’ary”. The session took about two hours and fifteen minutes after which the jury convened to assess his work and came to the following conclusions: He deserved a grade of “very good” for his dissertation and “excellent” in both the subjects; geography at the time of Arabs and the religions spirit of the Khawareg. In the next year, Dr. Taha Hussein was sent to the city of Montpellier, France, to study history.
One day, Taha Hussein wrote about Cairo university saying: “The life at the university at the beginning was a continuous celebration; the students lived it every night when they rushed to the classrooms whether they are rich or poor, cultured or not and even they are dressed differently. There were the extremely rich and the very poor. There were lawyers, the doctors, employees and Al Azhar graduates. Some had very little education, yet they all attended the lectures to learn and enjoy themselves whenever there was a chance for that”.
Of course, as we know, Taha Hussein obtained his doctorate degree from France, then returned to Cairo University to teach there.
Date: 08-08-2010 24
He participated heavily in the enlightenment movement to the extent that he was attacked for his new ideas. Yet he was promoted in different positions till he became the minister of education just before the 1952 revolution.
