Ahmad Amin (1886-1954), one of the leaders of the Islamic enlightenment movement, a famous writer, and a prominent figure in academic studies in literature.

His Life

Born 1986, from a conservative family known of its respect of knowledge and religion. He joined the elementary school then studied in Alazhar University in Cairo and graduated from the school of Islamic jurisprudence. Afterwards he was appointed as a teacher, judge, university professor, and became the dean of the faculty of literature at Cairo University. He was also appointed the position of a cultural consultant for the ministry of Education. On 1946 he was appointed as the manager of the cultural department of the Arab League.

Ahmad Ameen was born after the British occupation by four years, which was one of the most unstable periods of the Egyptian History. His father is Al-sheihk Ibrahim Altabbakh. Lately, in his intellectual life, this family name was left and he was known by his first name, Ahmad Amin, only. He belongs to a family of farmers who lived in an Egyptian village in northern Egypt, but his family has left the countryside as a result of injustice treatment of governors, who imposed high taxes on their land, leaving their own properties for those who can pay its taxes.  In Cairo he lived with his family in a simple small home in one of the poorest districts of it. At this period, his father joined the study in Alazhar and worked as a teacher, and used to gather books of language, history, literature and Islamic law (fiqh). This has put the first cultural seeds that Ahmad Ameen has received, and left a deep mark on his intellectual life. 

His studies

He studied in a modern elementary school for four years before his father transferred him to study classical Islamic disciplines in Alazhar. In Alazhar he knows the reformist Alsheikh Muhammad Abduh, for a short time, and gets affected by his reformist views. He stayed in Alazhar for short time, afterwards he worked as a teacher in Tanta and Alexandria. On 1907 it was decided to open the school of Islamic jurisprudence, where he was accepted after some difficulties as a result of his short sight. He studied Islamic sciences such as, Elocution, Literature, History and Fiqh (Islamic law) in addition to modern sciences such as: Geography, Science, arithmetic and Geometry. After four years he graduated from the high level department and appointed as a judge. Afterwards he felt the need to learn a foreign language in order to be able to learn modern culture from its source, so, he tried to learn French but without success, but he later on continued for years to study English by and English teacher, from which he learned a great deal about the western ways of life.   

 [تحرير]Literature and Thought

After finishing his studies he met with a group of intellectuals who were graduated from English and French universities with whom he constituted an intellectual group that aimed to study the different scientific and cultural sides of the Egyptian society. Hence, committees for politics, education, literature, etc, were formed. Ahmad Amin was responsible for "the committee of authorship, translation and publishing", which, due to his continuous efforts, was the only committee that lasted till the end of his life. The 'committee', with his participation and supervision published many very important works in philosophy and literature and constituted one of the important marks in the cultural life in Egypt during the twentieth century. During his works as a judge and later on as a university professor he had an enlightened position joining the knowledge of the modern era with the soul of his oriental and Islamic tradition.

His works

Among his numerous works:

·                     The dawn of Islam.

·                     The Morning of Islam.

·                     The Noon of Islam.

·                     The story of literature in the world.

·                     The overflow of the ideas.

·                     My life.

·                     To my son. [تحرير]