타하 후세인의 프랑스 문화 예찬

Taha Husayn s admiration of French culture

This paper placed the famous Egyptian blind writer, Taha Husayn s admiration of French cultures at its analystic center. My aim is to highlight the influences of his French wife Suzane on his praise. Taha Husayn married a French woman and through his wife Susan s eye he saw not only France but the world at large. There is no doubt that Susan meant almost everything to Taha Husayn. He loved her and depended on her in everything. He told that without her he felt he was really blind. It is interesting to note that Husayn might have entertained certain colonized perceptions of France and French culture, but his solid grounding in Arabic and Islamic studies had helped him forge a new path for himself and other Egyptian intellectuals(as said by Samar Attar). He knew his identity very well. In addition, it can be generally said that Husayn s Admiration of Europe particularly, of France, was mainly derived from his encounter with a few European orientalists at the Egyptian University, later renamed as Cairo University, his stay in Montpellier, then Paris between 1915-1919 as a student, his marriage to a French Catholic woman who became eyes for him, and his subsequent visits to France until his death on October 28, 1973. But at the same time it should not be overlooked that he was born in an Egyptian village, his religious learning was at al-Azhar.