Hussein Ali Mahfouz ( ar, حسين علي محفوظ; 3 May 1926 – 19 January 2009) was an Iraqi

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

in the field of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

Early life

Mahfouz was born in

Al Kadhimiya Kadhimiya ( ar, ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, al-Kāẓimiyyah, ) or Kadhimayn (, ) is a northern neighbourhood of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It is about from the city's center, on the west bank of the Tigris. 'Kadhimiya' is also the name of on ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

into a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

religious family. His father died when he was a child. He was raised by his mother and his uncle. In elementary school he began writing and translating texts from English to Arabic.

Academic career

After graduating from high school Mahfouz was accepted at Dar Al-Maualemen (the House of Teachers) college in Baghdad; he graduated in 1948. Then he received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

from the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

in 1952. After returning to Iraq in 1956 he was appointed as a professor in Dar Al-Maualemen Al-'Aali (the House of Teachers for higher studies) and an inspector of

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

in the ministry of knowledge. In 1961 Mahfouz moved to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to teach Arabic language and literature at

Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. In 1969 he established the department of

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...

at the College of Literature of the

University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt. Nomenclature Both University ...

Later career

Mahfouz retired from teaching in the late 1990s. He kept a position as a judge of Masters and Ph.D. candidates, until the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. He died in

Kadhimiya Kadhimiya ( ar, ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, al-Kāẓimiyyah, ) or Kadhimayn (, ) is a northern neighbourhood of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It is about from the city's center, on the west bank of the Tigris. 'Kadhimiya' is also the name of on ...

hospital at the age of 83 with a bibliography of almost 1500 books and articles. Male mark Salem al-Alusi , said President

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ' (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 16 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and ...

in the beginning of his reign, Iran demanded recovery of the remains of Harun al-Rashid al-Khalifa, being a symbol of Baghdad in its golden age, and the invitation urged from the late

Abdul Jabbar Jomard Abdul Jabbar Jomard ( ar, عبد الجبار الجومرد‎; December 1909 in Mosul – November 30, 1971 in Mosul ) was Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iraq), Foreign Minister from 1958 to 1959.Abd al-Karim Qasim Abd al-Karim Qasim Muhammad Bakr al-Fadhli al-Zubaidi ( ar, عبد الكريم قاسم ' ) (21 November 1914 – 9 February 1963) was an Iraqi Army brigadier and nationalist who came to power when the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown ...

, but Iran refused, and contrast asked retrieve the remains of Sheikh

Abdul Qadir Gilani ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī, ( ar, عبدالقادر الجيلاني, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī; fa, ) known by admirers as Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sāliḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī al-Baḡdādī al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusayn ...

, being born Kellan Iran, and then request the president of Mustafa Jawad mark, a statement about it, Mustafa Jawad answered: The sources, who remember that Sheikh Abdul Qadir was born in Gilan Iran, sources depends novel one and passed without a study and investigation, Either make more sense is born in a village called (generation) near the cities, but untrue being from Iran or that his grandfather named Gilan, which was confirmed by the mark Hussein Ali Mahfouz in Jalawla Festival held by the Union of Arab Historians and was present Alusi also in 1996, and actually the Iranian state told so But the intervention of an Arab country, closed the subject Tucker, Spencer (2010). The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts. 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 191–192. ISBN 978-1-85109-947-4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahfouz, Hussein Ali 1926 births Iraqi Shia Muslims University of Baghdad faculty Iraqi translators 2009 deaths University of Tehran alumni Semiticists Iraqi academics 20th-century translators Saint Petersburg State University faculty Researchers of Persian literature

Early life

Academic career

Later career

Further reading

References