The Encyclopedia of World History.  2001.

1926

Publication of Pre-Islamic Poetry, by TAHA HUSAYN. The book, which applied modern literary criticism to the study of pre-Islamic poetry, cast doubt on the standard Muslim dating for many of these works. Conservative readers viewed the book as an indirect and highly subversive attack on the traditional interpretation of the Qur'an. The book had to be withdrawn shortly after publication. In large part due to this controversy, Husayn lost his teaching position at Cairo University five years later.

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Writers like Taha Husayn belonged to an intellectual movement that looked to Europe for its guiding ideas and cultural models. Among their chief concerns was the attempt to construct a unique Egyptian identity, extending back to pharaonic times, in politics, language, religion, and culture. The intellectuals who were most active in formulating these ideas were (apart from Taha Husayn) Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid (1872–1963), Muhammad Husayn Haykal (1888–1956), Salama Musa (1887–1958), Muhammad al-Aqqad (1889–1964), and Isma‘il Mazhar (1891–1962). The movement reached its peak during the 1920s before losing ground to Islamic and pan-Arab ideologies in the following decade.

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