Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (1889-1973) was a leading figure in the Nahḍa, the Egyptian and Arabic literary revival. He wrote critical and political essays, was a historian, polemicist, translator, and newspaper editor, and served as minister of education in the last Wafdist government (1950-2). His vast, diverse, and sometimes controversial intellectual production earned him the unofficial title of "Dean of Arabic Letters." His writings generally express a progressive conception of history and a pedagogical view of literature. 1. Education Ṭāhā Ḥusayn belonged to a generation of Egyptian intellectuals who benefited