Aḥmad Ḥasan al-Zayyāt

Ahmad Hasan al-Zayyat was an influential Egyptian political writer and intellectual who established the Egyptian literary magazine Arrissalah, which is described as "the most important intellectual weekly in 1930s Egypt and the Arab world." Born in the village of Kafr Demira, Talkha, into what was then a peasant family, al-Zayyat studied at Al-Azhar University before taking up legal studies in Cairo and Paris. He taught Arabic literature at American University in Cairo, and for three years in Baghdad, before founding Arrissalah in 1933. In the 1960s he served as the editor of Majallat Al Azhar, monthly publication of Al Azhar University.