Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayyid

Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayyid (15 January 1872 – 5 March 1963) was an Egyptian intellectual, journalist and politician, known as the "Professor of the Generation" and a father of Egyptian liberalism. He founded the newspaper al-Jarida and Egypt's first political party, Hizb al-Umma, directed the National Library, and became the first president of the Egyptian University. ^{1 2}

He was born in the village of Berqin, near al-Sinbillawayn in al-Daqahliyya, on 15 January 1872. ^{1 2} He was educated at a kuttab, at a government school in Mansoura, at the Khedivial Secondary School in Cairo, and at the School of Law in Cairo, graduating in 1894. ^{1 2} At law school he came into contact with Muhammad Abduh, whose reformist thought played a pivotal role in his formation; the Arabic article also records that he kept company with Jamal al-Din al-Afghani for a time in Istanbul and read Aristotle deeply, later translating some of his works into Arabic. ^{1 2}

After graduating he worked in the government's legal department until 1905, and in 1907 became editor-in-chief of the newspaper al-Jarida, whose liberal writings made his name. ¹ When the Denshawai incident of 1906 came to trial, he publicised the treatment of the accused villagers, and in 1907, in reaction to the incident, he founded Hizb al-Umma ("the Nation"), Egypt's first political party; the Arabic article dates the founding to December 1907 and gives its slogan as "Egypt for the Egyptians". ^{1 2}

Lutfi was an outright liberal who introduced Arab readers to John Stuart Mill's definition of liberalism and held that people must have a say in their government and that civil rights cannot be taken away. ¹ He was one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism and a fierce opponent of pan-Arabism, insisting that Egyptians are Egyptians and not Arabs; he held that Egyptianness rested on history and environment rather than on a religious, pan-Islamic or pan-Ottoman bond, and he opposed religious schools. ^{1 2} His best-known saying, recorded by the Arabic article, is that difference of opinion should not spoil a friendship. ²

From 1915 to 1918 he directed the National Library of Egypt, and in 1919 he was a member of the Egyptian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference pleading for independence. ¹ He became the first president of the Egyptian University, inaugurated on 11 May 1925; he resigned in 1932 in protest at the transfer of Taha Hussein, resigned again in 1937 when police entered the university court, and finally stepped down in May 1941; under his presidency the first cohort of women graduated from the university. ^{1 2} He also served as minister of education and minister of interior — the Arabic article adds the foreign ministry, a deputy premiership under Ismail Sidqi, a senate seat and the presidency of the Academy of the Arabic Language — and, according to a work cited by the Arabic article, the Free Officers offered him the presidency of Egypt in 1952 and he refused. ^{1 2} He died at Cairo on 5 March 1963. ^{2 3}

His writings include Safahat Matwiyya, Ta'ammulat and his memoir Qissat Hayati, besides his translations from Aristotle. ² Among those he formed was Salama Moussa, who acknowledged his intellectual debt to him. ⁴ His student Husayn Fawzi al-Najjar wrote his biography under the title Lutfi al-Sayyid, the Teacher of a Generation. ¹