Nuʿmān Saʿd al-Dīn ʿĀshūr (1918-87) was a prominent Egyptian playwright, as well as a short story writer, essayist, cultural historian, and journalist. He became the leading figure in a new school of realistic drama with far-reaching influence. He was born on 18 January 1918 in Mīt Ghamr, in the Delta in Lower Egypt. Initially educated at the village kuttāb (Qurʾān school), he moved to Cairo in 1934 for his secondary education. At Fuʾād I University (later Cairo University) he studied law, then English literature (where he encountered