Youssef Ziedan
Youssef Ziedan (born June 30, 1958 in Sauhadsch , Upper Egypt ), Arabic يوسف زيدان, DMG Yūsuf Zaydān is an Egyptian scientist who has specialized in Arabic and Islamic studies, working mainly with manuscripts . However, he also became known beyond a specialist audience for his essayistic and fictional work.
Life
Ziedan grew up in the city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean . He attended the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Alexandria , where he graduated with summa cum laude . His doctoral thesis is entitled: The Qadiri Sufi Order, with a Study and Edition of the Poetical Work of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani , a work on the Sufi order of the Qadiriyya and the poems of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani . Ziedan is director of the manuscript department in the Museum of Manuscripts, which is part of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina , and lives with his family in Alexandria.
Scientific work
His work on Sufism and its important philosophers Ibn Arabi and Abdul Karim Jili are among the most important of his more than 50 publications. Further research areas are Islamic philosophy and the history of Arabic medicine and its representatives such as Ibn an-Nafis and Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi). In order to make these documents accessible to a wider audience, he is trying to digitize them.
- Publications (selection)
- Sufi Orders and al-Qadiriyya in Egypt
- Treatises on Body Parts by Ibn al-Nafis
- Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: the four texts and their authors
- Fikh al-thawrah , Dar al-Shurūq, Cairo 2013, ISBN 978-9770932414
Works of fiction
In addition to his academic work, Youssef Ziedan also works as a novelist. While his debut work The Shadow of the Snake received little reception, Azazel received excellent reviews due to its narrative quality, but also became the subject of fierce political and social controversy because of its content. Both novels have a distinctly socially critical character: in the first, Ziedan deals with prevailing images of women, in the second with religious fanaticism and extremism.
- Publications
- The snake's shadow , 1996.
-
Azazel , 2008, awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction ;
- in German by Larissa Bender: Azazel , Roman. Luchterhand Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-630-87331-2 .
Web links
- Youssef Ziedan's website , accessed November 24, 2013.
- Portrait of Youssef Ziedan in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 23, 2011, accessed on November 24, 2013.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ziedan, Youssef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yūsuf Zaydān; يوسف زيدان (Arabic) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Egyptian Arabist and Islamic scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 30, 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sohag , Upper Egypt , Egypt |