Youssef Ziedan

Youssef Ziedan is an Egyptian writer and scholar, born in Sohag in 1958 and raised in Alexandria. ¹ He specialises in the Arabic manuscript heritage, Sufism and the history of Arabic medicine, and directed the Manuscript Center at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina; his 1989 doctorate was a study and edition of the works of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. ¹ His novels include Shadow of the Serpent, Azazeel, which won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009, The Nabatean and Fardeqan. ¹

Yusuf Muhammad Ahmad Ziedan was born on 30 June 1958 at Saqulta in Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt, and moved with his grandfather to Alexandria as a small child; he was raised and educated there and still lives there with his family. ^{2 1} He graduated summa cum laude from the philosophy department of the University of Alexandria; his master's thesis treated the Sufi thought of Abd al-Karim al-Jili, and his 1989 doctorate examined the Qadiri Sufi order with a study and edition of the poetry of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. ^{2 1} He has consulted on Arabic heritage preservation for international institutions including UNESCO, directed manuscript documentation projects, and produced some twenty manuscript catalogues. ¹ Sufism and the Qadiriyya are his academic field and the subject of his scholarship, not attestation of personal adherence; the sources name no school or affiliation for Ziedan himself, and the museum records none. ^{1 3}

His Sufism and philosophy books include Sufi Orders and al-Qadiriyya in Egypt, his edition of the poetical works of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: the Four Texts and their Authors, and Arabic Theology and the Roots of Religious Violence, which examines the ideas that shaped Judaism, Christianity and Islam. ¹ In the history of Arabic medicine he edited Ibn al-Nafis's thirty-volume medical encyclopedia al-Shamil fil Sina'a al-Tibbiyya. ¹ His novels include Shadow of the Serpent (2006), Azazeel (2008), written as the translated scrolls of a fifth-century Egyptian monk, The Nabatean (2012), Places and Guantanamo (2013), and Fardeqan, shortlisted for the 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. ¹

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