Aisha Abd al-Rahman (Bint al-Shati)

Aisha Abd al-Rahman (18 November 1913 – 1 December 1998) was an Egyptian writer, editor and professor of Arabic literature who published as 'Bint al-Shati', author of more than forty books and a hundred articles. ^{1 2}

She was born at Damietta, where her father taught at the religious institute, and began by memorising the Qur'an at the village school. Her mother enrolled her in school at ten against her father's objection and later sent her to Mansoura to continue; with a teacher's certificate she taught at a girls' school there. She then studied Arabic at Cairo University, taking her first degree in 1939 and her MA in 1941. ¹

From 1942 she was an inspector of Arabic literature teaching at the Ministry of Education; she took her PhD with distinction in 1950 and became professor of Arabic literature at the University College for Women of Ain Shams University. She wrote fiction, biographies of the women of early Islam and literary criticism; her books include 'al-Rif al-Misri' (1936), 'Banat al-Nabi' (1956), 'al-Khansa' (1957) and 'Umm al-Nabi' (1961). ¹

Her 'al-Tafsir al-Bayani lil-Qur'an al-Karim' appeared in two volumes between 1966 and 1969, covering the shorter suras; she called her method 'the literary method', drawing on her teacher and husband Amin al-Khuli and on Muhammad Abduh. ¹

She received the Egyptian State Award in 1987 and the King Faisal Prize for Arabic Language and Literature in 1994, shared with Wadad al-Qadi, on the topic of ancient Arabic prose. ^{1 3} A statue of her was erected in Cairo in 1985, and she gave her whole library for research. ¹

She died in Cairo of a heart attack following a stroke on 1 December 1998. ^{1 2}

Wikidata listed articles on her in twenty-five Wikipedia editions on 7 November 2026. ²

• English Wikipedia article, revision of 25 August 2026. ¹

• Wikidata item Q3502921. ²

• King Faisal Prize laureate list, revision of 31 October 2026. ³