Muhammad Husayn Haykal

Muhammad Husayn Haykal (20 August 1888 – 8 December 1956) was an Egyptian writer, journalist and politician who held several cabinet posts, including minister of education. ¹ The English article describes him as the first Egyptian, Arab, Middle Easterner and African to earn a habilitation from the Sorbonne, and as the author of the first Arabic-language novel and the first writer to treat the Prophet Muhammad and the caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman from a scientific perspective. ¹ His novel Zaynab and his biography Hayat Muhammad (The Life of Muhammad) made him one of the central figures of Egypt's literary and intellectual Nahda generation, first as a liberal of Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid's school and later as the leading modern biographer of the Prophet and the early caliphs. ^{2 1}

Haykal was born on 20 August 1888 — 12 Dhu al-Hijja 1305 AH in the Arabic article's own dating — in the village of Kafr Ghannam, placed by the English article under Mansoura and by the Arabic article under Sinbillawin, in Daqahliyah Governorate. ^{1 2} He studied law at the Khedivial Law School in Cairo and graduated in 1909, then took a doctorate in law from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1912. ^{2 1} While a student in Paris he composed Zaynab, the novel later considered the first authentic Egyptian novel. ¹

After returning to Egypt he worked as a lawyer for ten years and in journalism, publishing in Al Jarida. ¹ He was close to Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid and followed his guidance, and was influenced by Muhammad Abduh and Qasim Amin. ^{2 1} The historian Husayn Fawzi al-Najjar was among his protégés. ¹

Haykal was a member of the Committee of Thirty that drafted the 1923 constitution, the first constitution of independent Egypt. ² He was a co-founder of Al Siyasa, the newspaper of the Liberal Constitutional Party, for which he was an adviser and editor-in-chief; the Arabic article specifies that he took the editorship of its weekly edition, Al-Siyasa al-Usbu'iyya, in 1926. ^{1 2}

In December 1937 he was appointed minister of state for the interior in Muhammad Mahmoud Pasha's second government. ^{1 2} He then held the education ministry repeatedly: in 1938–39 under Muhammad Mahmoud, from 1940 to 1942 under Hassan Sabri and Hussein Sirri, and again from October 1944 to January 1945 under Ahmed Maher, when Social Affairs was added to his portfolio. ² In the education post he introduced several reforms, including decentralisation — establishing educational zones and making programmes and curricula nationally oriented. ¹

He was chosen vice-president of the Liberal Constitutional Party in 1941 and its president in 1943, remaining president until the parties were abolished after the revolution of 23 July 1952. ² From 1945 he presided over the Senate, until June 1950. ² He also represented Saudi Arabia at the signing of the Arab League Charter in 1945 and headed Egypt's delegation to the United Nations more than once. ²

Zaynab, written in Paris and published in 1914, is considered by many critics the first modern Egyptian novel; Elliott Colla argues that the label owed as much to the needs of national institutions at moments of formation as to the text itself, and that the novel entered the national literary tradition through its later reception and reproduction. ^{1 2} It was later made into Egypt's first silent film. ²

His fame beyond fiction rests on the series of biographies he wrote from the 1930s: Hayat Muhammad (The Life of Muhammad), dated 1935 by the Arabic article and 1933 by the English and Urdu ones; Fi Manzil al-Wahy (In the House of Revelation, 1937 in the Arabic article, 1939 in the English); al-Siddiq Abu Bakr (1942); al-Faruq Umar (1944/45); and Uthman ibn Affan (may God be pleased with him) (1964 in the Arabic article, published posthumously in 1968 in the English). ^{2 1 3} Hayat Muhammad was translated into English by Isma'il Raji al-Faruqi. ¹ His later years produced his memoirs on Egyptian politics (1951–53) and Hakadha Khuliqt (Thus Was I Created, 1955), and several works appeared after his death, among them Al-Iman wa-l-Ma'rifa wa-l-Falsafa (Faith, Knowledge and Philosophy) and Al-Imbraturiyya al-Islamiyya wa-l-Amakin al-Muqaddasa (The Islamic Empire and the Sacred Places). ^{1 2}

Haykal was the father of seven children; his daughter Fayza Haikal teaches Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. ¹ He died in Cairo on 8 December 1956, aged 68 — 5 Jumada al-awwal 1376 AH in the Arabic article's dating. ^{1 2}

This section presents differing assessments as the sources give them; they are not the museum's verdict.

The liberal phase. Scholarship on his early career reads the young Haykal as a positivist liberal of Lutfi al-Sayyid's circle: Lorenzo Casini's study treats his "anti-Enlightenment modernity" of 1916–1925, while Israel Gershoni describes a "recantation of positivism" in 1927–1930 and a turn of Egyptian intellectuals toward Islamic subjects in the 1930s, with Hayat Muhammad at its centre. ¹

The biography's reception. Gershoni's reception study shows Hayat Muhammad being read in competing ways by its different publics, and Charles D. Smith's analysis sets out "two interpretations" of Haykal's Islam — his own and the Muslim Brothers' — with different socioeconomic implications. ¹ The novel's canonical status is likewise debated: Colla concludes that Zaynab became "the first Arabic novel" through institutional circumstances rather than at its first appearance. ¹

Principal works, with the Arabic article's dates except where noted: Zaynab (1914); Fi Awqat al-Faragh (1925); Tarajim Misriyya wa-Gharbiyya (Biographies of Egyptian and Western Personalities, 1929); Waladi (1931); Thawrat al-Adab (1933); Hayat Muhammad (1935); Fi Manzil al-Wahy (1937); al-Siddiq Abu Bakr (1942); al-Faruq Umar (1944); Memoirs on Egyptian Politics (1951–53); Hakadha Khuliqt (1955). ^{2 1}

• English Wikipedia, "Mohammed Hussein Heikal", revision 1362974022. ¹
• Arabic Wikipedia, «محمد حسين هيكل», revision 76918435. ²
• Urdu Wikipedia, «محمد حسین ہیکل», revision 12070493. ³
• Wikidata, Q2362588. ⁴