Taha Husein is rightly regarded as the father of modern Arabic literature and his work is widely used as introductory texts for students of the language. In this highly original book, Dr Mahmoudi describes Husein's cultural and intellectual journey through his education in Egypt and France. Husein's humanism and modernism can be traced from his time at the al Azhar through his time in the influential circle of Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid to his famous study mission to France, where he witnessed the twilight of positivism. Taha Husein's Education will add to our understanding of this great Egyptian author and the contexts that shaped and informed his thought.

Medhat is an orphaned boy who grows up shuttling between various farming families in the beautiful province of Sharkia, east of the Nile Delta. What was intended to be a brief visit for the five-year-old to Ismailia, a beautiful and cosmopolitan city in the Suez Canal zone, ends up being the beginning of a nomadic life no one could have imagined. Medhats journey takes him across the many landmarks of Egypt and beyond, all the way to Vienna where he discovers that his feelings of displacement still haunt him to the core. In a narrative that interweaves aspects of Egyptian folklore, epic prose, and classical literature, the author skillfully presents the conflict between the man in exile who reflects longingly on his history and origins, and the village boy who belonged nowhere.