مهد العرب

Abd al-Wahhab Azzam: pioneer of Persian studies, writer, diplomat, researcher, and thinker who presented to research fields a variety of research papers in literature, history, and mysticism. It was characterized by the depth of Arab, Islamic and literary culture; He stood on the literature of Islamic peoples, and mastered the Persian, Turkish and Urdu languages. Our writer is considered one of the custodians of the Arab heritage. Where he was interested in the investigation of many books, and worked to thwart the subversive scheme led by Abdel Aziz Fahmy to replace the Latin letters with the Arabic letters. Azzam was keen on restoring and strengthening the bonds between the Arab nation and the Islamic world. Abdel-Wahhab Azzam was born in the village of “Al-Shobak” in 1894 AD, in a family that had a long history in political and militant thought against the British. His father, Sheikh Muhammad Hassan Bey Azzam, was a member of the Laws Consultative Council, and then the Legislative Assembly. Muhammad Bey was keen to provide his son with a supply of religious knowledge; So he sent him to the book, where he memorized the Noble Qur’an, learned the principles of reading and writing, and then joined Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. After gaining his knowledge, he joined the School of Sharia Judiciary, then joined the National University, where he obtained a BA in Arts and Philosophy in 1923. He has held many high academic positions; He was lined up to be an imam at the Egyptian Embassy in London. This position ensured that he was familiar with what orientalists write about Islam and the Islamic world. This motivated him to study the languages ​​of the Islamic East, so he joined the School of Oriental Languages ​​in London, from which he obtained a master’s degree in Persian literature in 1927 AD, then returned after that and was appointed as a teacher at the Faculty of Arts, and obtained a doctorate that he prepared on the “Shahnameh” of Ferdowsi, according to which he was appointed as a teacher for Eastern Languages, then head of the department, then dean of the Faculty of Arts. Azzam began his journey in the diplomatic corps; He was appointed as Egypt's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, then its ambassador to Pakistan. Abd al-Wahhab Azzam presented many books to the intellectual arena, including: “An Introduction to the Arabic Shahnameh” and “The Memory of Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi.” He passed away in 1959 and was buried in his mosque in Helwan.