(1915 - 1983)

Born in Cairo, Rushdi studied at Cairo University then at Leeds University where he obtained a doctorate in English Literature. He returned to Egypt and he was first a teacher and later professor of English Language and Literature at Cairo University. He was the first Egyptian to head the English Department in the early 1950s. He was determined to integrate the learning of English language and literature into mainstream Egyptian culture and turn his staff and students into active forces in the cultural life of the country.

He translated English works into Arabic, seeing it as one of his main tasks in the interpreting of western culture and literature to the Arabic reader.

His interest in the theater began in the late thirties, when he collaborated with a group of young actors who performed in Egypt and other Arab countries. He provided translations of Marlowe’s Faustus and Gogol’s Inspector General. From 1959, a succession of his plays were successfully produced on the Cairo stage.

He produced his own plays on the UAR broadcasting service and wrote Arabic scripts for the BBC, giving his impressions of English life. He lectured in universities in the USA as a visiting professor and published three books in English on Egyptian themes in English literature.

He was editor of a general cultural magazine on theater from 1960-1966, then editor of one devoted to cinema in 1973 until his death in 1983.

Read Arabic Short Stories

References: Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/898/cu1.htm

Arabic Short Stories, ed. Mahmoud Manzalaou, The American University of Cairo Press, 1985.