Ahmad Shalabi (historian)

Dr Ahmad Shalabi was an Egyptian historian; the title page of al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami describes him as holding a doctorate from Cambridge, England, as professor of Islamic history and civilisation at Dar al-Ulum, Cairo University, and as holder of the Order of Sciences and Arts, first class, for his writings on the Prophet ﷺ's life and Islamic civilisation. ¹

He says he studied at al-Azhar and Dar al-Ulum, that his Cambridge doctorate was on "Islamic education", and that preparing it required studies in politics, economics and sociology. ²

He wrote Mawsu'at al-Tarikh al-Islami and Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya; his list of works includes a series on teaching Arabic and its grammar to non-Arabs, and out-of-print books whose material went into the two encyclopaedias, among them Fi Qusur al-Khulafa' al-Abbasiyyin, Misr fi Harbayn (1967 and 1973), al-Hukuma wa-l-Dawla fi al-Islam, al-Ishtirakiyya: Dirasa Ilmiyya Naqdiyya, and al-Jihad wa-l-Nuzum al-Askariyya fi al-Tafkir al-Islami. ³ He wrote al-Siyasa wa-l-Iqtisad fi al-Tafkir al-Islami, which he says was translated into several languages. ⁴

He relates that in the 1960s, when socialism was made a university subject, he agreed to teach it at Dar al-Ulum and some science faculties of Cairo University and wrote a critical book on it, proceeding "quietly" because open opposition to the official slogans exposed one to prison. ⁴ This is his own account.