Taha Hussein

Taha Hussein (November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was among the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a leading figure of the Arab Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Arab world.

Quotes

The Future of Culture in Egypt (1938)

• I do not like illusions. I am persuaded that it is only God who can create something from nothing.

• ...new Egypt will not come into being except from the ancient, eternal Egypt. I believe further that the new Egypt will have to be built on the great old one, and that the future of culture in Egypt will be an extension, a superior version, of the humble, exhausted, and feeble present.

• We do not wish, nor are we able, to break the link between ourselves and our forefathers. To the degree that we establish our future life upon our past and present we shall avoid most of the dangers caused by excesses and miscalculations deriving from illusions and dreams.
  • page 2

• It seems to me that there are two distinctly different and bitterly antagonistic cultures on the earth. Both have existed since time immemorial, the one in Europe, the other in the Far East.
  • Page 3

• It would be a waste of time and effort to set forth in detail the ties binding Egypt to the ancient Greco-Aegean civilization.
  • Page 4

• Egypt was one of the earliest among the Islamic states to recover her ancient, unforgotten personality.
  • Page 6

• ....the Egyptian Government has an obligation not only to spread culture among all the classes of our population, but to export it to the various peoples beyond our borders who are capable of deriving enjoyment and profit from it.

• ..it should not be forgotten that independence entails responsibilities and that remissness in discharging them ill suits our honor and traditional claims to leadership.

• Saudi Arabia is a country where foreigners have not had the right to build schools and where the people lack the means to educate their children properly.

• Egyptian culture may be clearly analyzed into the ancient Egyptian artistic component, the Arab-Islamic legacy, and the borrowings from the best of modern European life.

• Egypt has a culture which is international but which, at the same time, reflects the calm, eternal personality of ancient Egypt. It can nourish and enlighten other peoples and afford them a kind of pleasure which they may or may not be able to derive from their own cultures.

• If we apply all the energy and intelligence we can muster to the enrichment of Egyptian culture, it will greatly contribute not only to our national growth but also to that of mankind.
• cultural producers, intellectuals and politicians are asking foundational questions about the role of government in the field of culture and vice versa”
• (Page 2)

• culture, cultural formations and intellectuals (…) exist and are made possible by virtue of a very interesting network of relationships with the State’s commanding, almost absolute power”
• (Page 21).
• In an ominous shift, he goes on to ask, “What is needed for Culture to join the bandwagon of Revolution?”
• (Page 93)
• After mentioning some possible paths, Naguib concludes that the answer will vary according to one’s conception of culture
• (Page 94).
• The future of this cultural work—its continuity or its decline—hinges on the existence of a (political and cultural) national agreement between state and society on the fact that culture is a strategic necessity that cannot be delayed, partitioned or rely on individual or private initiative. It is, in short, institutional work, a state project worthy of a country with an ancient civilization established on a mindset shaped by the arts. This project represents a building operation for a people’s spirit, a nation’s conscience, an identity’s anchoring, and a revolution’s triumph over the advocates of obscurity and backwardness.
• (Page 112–113)
• In Towards a Changing Culture, he argues most clearly that a progressive secular culture should be built through coordination among state institutions, an overall strategy for cultural and economic development, faith in scientific development, freedom of choice, and a modern secular state
• (Page 63–69).
• Most of the book is an anthropological exploration of human evolution, culminating in a chapter where the author argues that the development of culture (which he defines as a set of evolving environmental, intellectual, existential, social, and psychological characteristics) must run through state planning
• (Page 323).

External links

• The Future of Culture in Egypt
• The Future of Culture in Egypt